Over Homecoming and Family Weekend, students, faculty, and community members gathered to learn about the history and legacy of the Wangunk (the Indigenous caretakers of Middletown and the greater Connecticut River Valley) through an exhibition and artist’s talk by Wangunk elder and contemporary ceramicist Gary Red Oak O’Neil, as well as a symposium on recent research about Wangunk history.
The symposium opened on Friday with an Artist’s Talk, a conversation between O’Neil and J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Professor of Indigenous Studies at Princeton and curator of O’Neil’s exhibit Excavations. A longtime faculty member of Wesleyan’s American Studies Department who advocated tirelessly for Indigenous Studies, Kauanui developed a friendship with O’Neil over the course of her time teaching and living in Middletown. Excavations, currently on view in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha South Gallery Reading Room, is an exhibition of ceramic works inspired by the Connecticut River, personal histories of O’Neil, and archeological evidence of Wangunk presence from the current Lt. John Hollister excavation site in South Glastonbury, Connecticut. Following a screening of Piece by Piece, a film about O’Neil’s pottery by Eiley Doyle (’25), O’Neil and Kauanui contextualized Excavations with a discussion about the connections between O’Neil’s artistic practice and his family history.
On Saturday the 25th, Wesleyan’s Center for the Humanities hosted academics from the Wangunk Studies Working Group, who presented papers in three panels throughout the day. The Wangunk Studies Working Group, convened in 2024, consists of academics and community researchers, most of whom do not work at Wesleyan. Topics of the panels included: Indigenous healers in the 18th century, Wangunk family networks and genealogies, analysis of the relationships between settlers and Wangunk at the Lt. John Hollister site, and many more. Russell House, the location of the symposium, was at capacity all day and included an audience of community members, students, and faculty, who participated in Q&A sessions after the panels. See the symposium schedule on Wesleyan’s website for a full list of panels and panelists throughout the day.
The titles “Emerging from Erasure,” and “Excavations” highlight the ways in which Wangunk histories have been erased and their legacy has been denied. At the same time, they emphasize the tentative and hopeful beginning of new scholarship and engagement with this history.
Panelists throughout the day, along with O’Neil, emphasized that this symposium is a beginning of ongoing partnerships between scholars and community members who are engaging with Wangunk culture, history, and enduring legacy.
Wesleyan does not currently have a standardized institutional land acknowledgement. While the practice of land acknowledgements can be fraught with accusations of performativity, we propose that this weekend’s symposium, in conjunction with Excavations, is a form of land acknowledgement that emphasizes the continuation and futurity of the Wangunk.
In other words, the symposium weekend opened up more conversation and curiosity about Wangunk and settler colonial histories that highlight how the Wangunk community has not been erased, but is instead vibrant and present. In contrast, the potentially conclusive tone of brief written land acknowledgements can appear to offer a final word on institutional recognition of Indigenous groups, thereby discouraging further investigation.
The weekend also encouraged dialogue between community members about ways to increase Wangunk visibility, including expanding support for education about the Wangunk in universities and K-12 schools in the local area. The audience offered suggestions throughout the day regarding ways to engage with Wangunk history and legacy in the future. Some of these suggestions included a historical walking tour of Indian Hill Cemetery, and transforming Middletown’s riverfront into a path for art and reflection about the Indigenous caretakers of the Connecticut River.
What can we do going forward to engage with Wangunk past, present, and future? We invite you to join us in this conversation with scholars, community members, and local Wangunk people. Connect with us by emailing your interest to amock@wesleyan.edu and foreilly@wesleyan.edu, Research and Curatorial Interns at the Center for the Arts.
Excavations will be on view in the Zilkha South Gallery Reading Room until November 23rd. We encourage you to see the exhibit and look at the reading materials available in the space, which provide more historical context to O’Neil’s work.
We would like to express our sincere appreciation and gratitude to those who provided support for the symposium: Wesleyan’s Deans of Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences; the American Studies and Anthropology Departments; The Wintman Family Endowed Lecture series; Middlesex County Historical Society; and Wesleyan’s Indigenous Studies Research Network. Additionally, thank you to the History Department’s Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs Grant for supporting our positions at the Center for the Arts to assist with programming.
Fiona O’Reilly is a member of the class of 2026 and is a Research and Curatorial Intern at the CFA. O’Reilly can be reached at foreilly@wesleyan.edu.
Angelica Mock is a member of the class of 2028 and is a Research and Curatorial Intern at the CFA. Mock can be reached at amock@wesleyan.edu.
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