Since Time Immemorial (Deer Island) / Elizabeth Solomon & Sarah Kanouse

Since Time Immemorial: Deer Island is Native Space
This soundwalk tunes the ears and the heart toward the past, present, and future of Native Space on Deer Island. Formed by materials deposited by retreating glaciers more than 10,000 years ago, the island was a beloved summer home of the Massachusett for thousands of years. Today, it is better known as the site of Boston’s wastewater treatment plant—and as a place of imprisonment and death for hundreds of peaceful ‘praying Indians’ during Metacom’s Rebellion (King Philip’s War). What aspects of the island’s interconnected geologic and human histories can be heard, felt, and touched today? Massachusett elder Elizabeth Solomon and artist Sarah Kanouse lead a 45-minute walk that encourages attendees to connect with and listen to the many currently obscured stories the island has to tell.

Time: April 30, 9:30am, depearture on a scheduled shuttle bus to Deer Island (limited seats). Otherwise, meeting at 10am at Deer Island - MWRA Gate.
Meeting point: GSD, Gund hall, 48 Quincy St.
Additional Info: As well as the walk along the island's shore, there are limited spots for a walk inside the water treatment facility on the island. Contact: [email protected] for more info on availability.

Elizabeth Solomon is an elder and officer of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag. She speaks frequently about local Indigenous histories and issues and has a long-standing commitment to the preservation of cultural heritage and community building that she brings to both her paid and volunteer work. In this capacity, Ms. Solomon works with varied institutions as they navigate developing meaningful relationships with her community and serves on multiple government and private advisory and management boards including those for the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Seal, Flag, and Motto Advisory Commission. Ms. Solomon has a master’s degree in museum studies and frequently works with museums and historic sites to help bring the voices and stories of Native communities and others that are currently underrepresented in museum exhibits and public history programs to the forefront.
Sarah Kanouse is an interdisciplinary artist and writer examining the political ecology of landscape and space. Migrating between video, sound, and performance, her expanded nonfiction media projects shift the visual dimension of landscape to allow hidden stories of environmental and social transformation to emerge. Her solo and collaborative creative work—most notably with Compass and the National Toxic Land/Labor Conservation Service—has been presented through the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Documenta 13, the Museum of Contemporary Art-Chicago, Krannert Art Museum, Cooper Union, Smart Museum, and numerous academic and artist-run venues. Her writings on landscape, ecology and contemporary art have appeared in Acme,Leonardo, Parallax, and Art Journal and numerous edited volumes. A 2019-2020 fellow at the Rachel Carson Center at Ludwig Maximilians Universität, she is Associate Professor of Media Arts in the Department of Art + Design at Northeastern University.
https://readysubjects.org/portfolio/

The Walking Festival of Sound

Walking Festival of Sound is a transdisciplinary event exploring the role of walking through and listening to our everyday surroundings. It combines a number of free and public events including walking performances, walking seminars and listening sessions, all taking place in diverse public spaces and online. Walking Festival of Sound facilitates a meeting point for the international network of practitioners and researchers interested in sound and walking. Through diverse events we explore how walking and listening practices can augment and challenge the way we perceive, navigate through, and care for our shared environments. In 2019 the festival took place in two cities, Stockholm, Sweden and Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. In April 2021, the festival moved to Krakow, Poland and Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2022, the festival visited Seoul, Korea and Vancouver, Canada. Zurich, Switzerland, was the festival's site in 2024. In 2026 the festival visits Cambridge and Boston in the USA.

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