BRUNSWICK — Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s fourth presentation of their 22nd annual Winter Speaker Series: Women of the Dawn, features Bunny McBride, author and anthropologist. This event takes place at the Bowdoin College Cram Alumni House, 83 Federal St. in Brunswick on Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m. The program follows annual FOMB elections and potluck supper beginning at 6 p.m. to which the public is also invited.

McBride’s national award-winning Women of the Dawn chronicles the lives of four historic Maine Indian women, one from each of the past four centuries: Molly Mathilde (Penobscot wife of the French baron de St. Castin), Molly Ockett (Pigwacket medicine woman, who had a special connection to Ft. Richmond), Molly Molasses (Penobscot medicine woman feared as a “witch”), and Molly Spotted Elk (Penobscot dancer and film actress who performed in France before World War II). In recognition of Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, McBride’s combination talk and readings will feature passages describing these women as they ply Maine’s rivers.

A descendant of a Scottish war captive banished to the Maine woods in 1651, McBride, has worked closely with and written extensively about Maine’s indigenous communities since 1981 — especially Micmac and Penobscot, but also Maliseet and Passamaquoddy  (all collectively known as Wabanaki, meaning “People of the Dawnland”).  From 1978-88 McBride wrote regularly for The Christian Science Monitor, publishing nearly 100 articles in that international newspaper from far-flung points around the globe and, since 1996 has been an adjunct lecturer of anthropology at Kansas State University. In 1999 the Maine state legislature gave McBride a special commendation for her research and writing on the history of Native women in the state-an honor initiated by tribal representatives in the legislature.

FOMB hosts their Winter Speaker Series October-May, the second Wednesday of each month. The Feb. 13 presentation, Cobbosseecontee: On the Edge of Restoration features Steve Brooke from the Gardiner-based river restoration group, Upstream. This 7pm program takes place at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick.

Speaker Series presentations are free, open to the public and supported by Patagonia, Inc. in Freeport. Visit www.fomb.org for more information./

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.