By Kelly Yang, Class of 2023

Our Drumbeat, Our Heartbeat

Student-Submitted Note: The installation is designed for Native American Literature class. The assignment requires the student to design an installation for a boarding school or college in Massachusetts that educates the community about the local tribe’s past, present and future presence.

Our Drumbeat, Our Heartbeat is an interactive art installation designed for Brown University that celebrates the survival and thriving of the Wampanoag community in the present and future. Brown has long committed to Indigenous people’s rights. It started a year-long exploration in 2021 into the relationship between the university, the land on which it sits on College Hill, and the local Indigenous Wampanoags, who were once the land’s sole occupants (Brown). However, from the Wampum Granoff Center exhibit in 2021 to the Native Enslavement display in 2022, Brown has focused more on showcasing the ancient history of local Native people than on demonstrating their vitality and prosperity now and in the future (Kimball). I choose Brown University for my installation because, in addition to the annual Powwow celebration at Brown, which similarly only focuses on traditional ceremonies and costumes, futuristic interactive installations can make a more persistent and visual statement about Wampanoags’ present and future existence on campus. I intentionally place the interactive installation on Brown’s College Green, a grassy park serving as a student hub for activities and games. Its open spaces have an advantage over closed buildings in that they allow maximum access to alumni, students, professors, and visitors. The grass and trees of the College Green also echo the Wampanoag spiritual beliefs of protecting Mother Earth and “car[ing] for the land” (Avant 429).

Our Drumbeat, Our Heartbeat consists of four drums triggering waves of light traveling towards a four-meter medicine wheel floating above the area. The interactive design invites Brown students, alumni, professors, and visitors on the Main Green to drum in unison to create an audio-visual extravaganza, the intensity of which is dependent on the pace and intensity of the drumming. Drumming is an indispensable part of Wampanoag culture and practice; it helps the Wampanoags to “live by the rhythms of Mother Earth” and reinforces Wampanoags’ “special relationship to the superior spiritual forces which governed the universe” (Avant 429). Similarly, the medicine wheel in the middle of the installation honors the Wampanoags’ belief in balancing life’s four stages, elements, and seasons. An interactive drumming installation helps the students and faculty understand where their school’s land comes from and the history and spiritual beliefs in this sacred place in a more engaging way.

Beyond recognizing the past, I also add Wampanoag words on the drums to challenge the “impression that [Wampanoags’] language is dead, and Wampanoags don’t exist” (We Still Live Here). I choose four Wampanoag words from the dictionary—Netomp (Friendship), Tabattoiantamodonk (Thankfulness), Unninanumwe (Modesty), and Natiauwe (Liberality)—to illustrate the four honored characteristics of Wampanoag culture. The QR code on the drum links to a Wampanoag bilingual dictionary and a video on Wampanoag language revitalization, inviting the audience to learn further about this language. Language is important to the Wampanoag identity because, as a Wampanoag Elder says, “it’s not the language that [Wampanoags] lost, it’s [Wampanoags’ identity]” (We Still Live Here). Speaking the Wampanoag language is a way to re-establish their sovereignty and restore their culture through resilience. Through the QR codes and Wampanoag words on the drums, I hope to challenge the impression that the Wampanoags no longer exist and show that their language and culture persist and can thrive through nonindigenous and Indigenous people’s efforts to learn them.

Besides the design of the Wampanoag words on the drum, I also choose quotes from contemporary Wampanoag authors to display on the screen of the drum. I include the year in which the quotes were written to show that these quotes are not from ancient times but from contemporary times. I select quotes from Joan Tavares Avant (a Mashpee Wampanoag Elder who continues to promote an accurate representation of Mashpee Wampanoag culture and heritage), Ms. Greendeer (the first Wampanoag author who wrote about Thanksgiving from an Indigenous perspective), and Paula Peters (a Wampanoag activist who pushed for federal recognition). These quotes demonstrate a wide range of Wampanoag authors who live now and will continue to add to the Indigenous “fire,” affirming Indigenous experiences, presence, and infinite possibility in the future.  

To show that the Wampanoags not only exist now but will exist in the future, I design the medicine wheel and drum in a futuristic style. The medicine wheel is characterized by its strong chromaticism, from blue to purple. I also design the strings connecting the drum and the medicine wheel using long dynamic lines, suggesting motion, urgency, and lyricism. By presenting the Wampanoag culture not in the old traditional style but in an experimental, avant-garde, and futuristic way, I hope to reinforce once again the notion that the Wampanoag people will flourish in the future as well.

“Why are we still here?” This is the question that Joan Tavares Avant raises in the introduction to People of the Light (Avant 430). I strive to answer this question with my interactive installation Our Drumbeat, Our Heartbeat: The Wampanoags are still here because they will continue to thrive, fighting the legacy of colonialism and continuing their traditions. They will be heard through their revived language, the sound of their drums, and their heartbeats.

Kelly Yang is a member of the class of 2023 from Shanghai. She is interested in feminist anthropology, ethnomusicology, and music composition.

References
Brown University. “Land Acknowledgement.” March 2021, https://landacknowledgment.brown.edu/background.
Kimball, Jim. “In Exhibition at Brown, Wampanoag Artist Draws on Tradition to Celebrate Indigenous Rights.” Brown University. October 7, 2021. https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-10-07/wampum.
Kimball, Jim. “Confronting Indigenous enslavement, one story at a time.” Brown University. October 5, 2022. https://www.brown.edu/news/2022-10-05/stolenrelations.
Tavares-avant, Janes. “Introduction.” People of the Light. Capstone Press, 2003, 429-434.
We Still Live Here. Directed by Anne Makepeace. Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 2011.