Sea Shanties & SEED Stories

Join us in the new gardens alongside the Pendleton House for the first Blue Hill Maritime Heritage Festival. We are thinking about plants that were considered important enough for early settlers to bring with them across the sea. The plants will comprise a collection of tea and medicinal plants tended in these early colonial ‘medicine chests’.

In tandem with exploring what plants arrived here, we are considering the severance of the landscape for the raw materials that became the foundations for colonialism. What systems were set in place that still exist today? What are the long term social impacts experienced by indigenous populations in the Penobscot region as well as the Caribbean and African regions? How is indigenous practice informing the healing of these lands?

Featuring custom painted Maritime Chests and Historical Signs by Robert Jarvis Leonard III, the garden installation will include crafts from Indian Island by Penobscot linguist Carol Dana and a selection of Haitian sculptures that offer a poignant reflection of the backwaters of (im)mobilities. An interactive component will invite visitors to share stories of their own relationship with plants and migrations.

Through the festival, songs of the sea will be sung both in the gardens and along the sea across the street at Emerson park. Bring an instrument and join in this Cèilidh style gathering, sharing stories and songs of the sea.

Image: William Gray's Letter of Marque Brig, "Grand Turk" of Salem by Robert Jarvis Leonard III

27 Water Street, Blue Hill
Saturday, August 17th from 10am to 5pm
After party at the Harbor House at 6pm