Gathering andGiving at Casey Farm
by JANE HENNEDY Site Manager, Southern Rhode Island
H
istoric New England’s farm properties are excellent places to delve into what we owe to and what we need to own up to in our relationship with Indigenous peoples. The land we now cultivate at Casey Farm in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, had been cultivated by the Narragansett people for millennia until colonizers took it by force and unfair transactions. Historic New England benefits from this history of cultivation, a history that is tied to oppression, even as we strive to enlighten ourselves as well as visitors. In 2018, we improved our museum gallery with the addition of artifacts found over the years at the farm to better reflect the story of the land. Lorén Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum in Exeter, Rhode Island, led us to see how we could expand that story by adding contemporary pieces that convey the continuity and creativity of Rhode Island’s Indigenous community. Recently, we added images of these
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Historic New England Summer 2021
