Exeter’s annual Indigenous Peoples Day celebration will be held at Founders Park on Monday, October 10, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Everyone is invited, and as it is a school holiday, children are especially encouraged to attend.

The event is a collaboration of the Racial Unity Team, Exeter Historical Society, American Independence Museum, Exeter Public Library, and SAU 16.
The theme of this year’s program is “Flora.” Adults and children will learn about Native American culture and customs as they visit craft tables to create corn husk dolls, pumpkin seed collages, blueberry and corn necklaces, and birch bark etchings. Plans are being made to involve SAU-16 students in the program. The day’s events will begin with a land acknowledgment, a testament to the indigenous people who populated this area prior to colonial settlement. This will be followed by presentations from Denise and Paul Pouliot, representing the Pennacook-Abenaki people, and Kathleen Blake, who identifies as Native American with tribal heritage in the Wendat, Algonquin, and Mi’kmaq First Nations. The event will end with a flora “scavenger hunt” throughout town, with book prizes awarded to students who complete the hunt activity.

The program is possible because of the generosity of its sponsors: The Donner Foundation, Kennebunk Savings, and Cambridge Trust. For more information visit racialunityteam.com/projects.