UN-MONUMENT | RE-MONUMENT | DE-MONUMENT
Memorialization of Urban Indigenous Presence in the City of Boston
The Un-monument | Re-monument | De-monument: Transforming Boston program brings temporary monuments and free public programming to neighborhoods across Boston. With generous funding from the Mellon Foundation, the City of Boston uses six curatorial approaches to commissioning temporary monuments across the City. Some Un-monument temporary monuments were selected through an open call to artists led by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. Others are the result of direct commissions by five organizations serving as curatorial partners:
Boston Public Art Triennial
Emerson Contemporary
National Center of Afro-American Artists
North American Indian Center of Boston
Pao Arts Center
With multiple curators, the City creates opportunities for more perspectives to join the conversation. Commissioning local organizations also supports Boston’s creative ecosystem and creates a more natural distribution of projects, histories, and community participation in this city-wide dialogue.
Our Memorialization of Urban Indigenous Presence in the City of Boston project builds on the Center's over 50 years of advocacy for the urban Indigenous population of the City of Boston. This project proposes our building and adjacent grounds as a monument to memorialize the extant presence and contributions of the urban Indigenous population within the City of Boston. The operation of the Center has supported the urban Indigenous community through employment and training programming and social and cultural events since 1969. In addition to providing services to American Indian, Alaska Native peoples, and First Nations peoples, NAICOB’s public educational programming promotes cross-cultural learning for all residents of the City of Boston.
As a monument, the North American Center of Boston features Ella Nathanael Alkiewicz (Labrador Inuk), Robert Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag), and an archive and oral history of Boston's urban Indigenous presence, led by Janelle Pocowatchit (Miꞌkmaq and Comanche Nation) and Shirley Paul (Miꞌkmaq).
Boston Public Art Triennial
Emerson Contemporary
National Center of Afro-American Artists
North American Indian Center of Boston
Pao Arts Center
With multiple curators, the City creates opportunities for more perspectives to join the conversation. Commissioning local organizations also supports Boston’s creative ecosystem and creates a more natural distribution of projects, histories, and community participation in this city-wide dialogue.
Our Memorialization of Urban Indigenous Presence in the City of Boston project builds on the Center's over 50 years of advocacy for the urban Indigenous population of the City of Boston. This project proposes our building and adjacent grounds as a monument to memorialize the extant presence and contributions of the urban Indigenous population within the City of Boston. The operation of the Center has supported the urban Indigenous community through employment and training programming and social and cultural events since 1969. In addition to providing services to American Indian, Alaska Native peoples, and First Nations peoples, NAICOB’s public educational programming promotes cross-cultural learning for all residents of the City of Boston.
As a monument, the North American Center of Boston features Ella Nathanael Alkiewicz (Labrador Inuk), Robert Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag), and an archive and oral history of Boston's urban Indigenous presence, led by Janelle Pocowatchit (Miꞌkmaq and Comanche Nation) and Shirley Paul (Miꞌkmaq).
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Ella Nathanael Alkiewicz (Labrador Inuk) is a visual artist, beader, educator, and writer. She completed a series of works to offer the viewer a brief study on the Indigenous people who live in the City of Boston. These original acrylic paintings and long-form poetry coupled with traditional languages honor the Indigenous peoples from this region, as well as the many Indigenous peoples who have made the City of Boston and NAICOB a home away form home. Hear from the artist about each piece, in her narrated descriptions accessed by QR code..
Ella holds a bachelor's degree in early child education and journalism with a Certificate in Native American Indian Studies, as well as an MFA in nonfiction writing from Lesley University. Ella paints with acrylics. Her pieces are shown and sold in galleries and at Native gathering across Massachusetts: Grant with a 2022 Art Workspace Easthampton Studio Residency from Easthampton City Arts and a 2022 ValleyCreates Project Evolution Grant from the Community Foundation of Western Mass. Ella is a beneficiary of Nunatsiavut Government, a dual citizen, and a happily married mother. Connect with the artist and learn more about her work here: ellaalkinuk.my.canva.site/ |
Ella's work is on view Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons from 1:00-4:00pm at NAICOB.
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Robert Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag) is an artist, poet, and author. His expansive work — from children’s literature and poetic essays to paintings and community murals — promotes understanding and healing among Indigenous people. His first published book, Da Goodie Monsta (2009), was inspired by a dream his son had as a young child and tells the story of a monster who chases away nightmares. Robert released Thirteen Moons Calendar: A Meditation on Indigenous Life (2015 and 2020) featuring poetry, essays, and thoughts written over 20 years. His most recent self-published work, Big Baby (2024), tells a reimagined story of Wampanoag legendary giant Maushop as a baby.
NAICOB was originally established in 1969 as the Boston Indian Council when it served as the hub of social and civil rights activities for the American Indian/Alaska Native and First Nations urban Indian community in Boston. The Boston Indian Council was first headquartered in Dorchester and moved to Jamaica Plain in 1974. The center was reorganized as the North American Indian Center of Boston in 1991. The building is home to Native people from Massachusetts and from across the country and Canada. Members were part of the inaugural National Day of Mourning in 1970; the Longest Walk in 1978; the fights for federal recognition in this region; in 2005 members successfully lobbied the repayment of a 330-year-old colonial-era law that prohibited Native Americans from entering the City of Boston — all from the NAICOB building. Robert memorialized this history with a mural that speaks to the community's enduring power in Boston. The mural overlooks NAICOB's outdoor space, which is currently being cultivated as a food forest and traditional medicine garden. He activated the space with community socials.
Robert's mural is complete. To join our community-led effort to transform this outdoor space, contact [email protected].
Robert's public art can also be found in community spaces on Sachem Street in Revere, MA; in dormitories at the University of Massachusetts Boston; and in a mobile collaboration with three other Native artists honoring Native Boston Marathon runners. Peters continues to write, paint, and work with youth. He is a fire keeper and a keeper of oral tradition.
NAICOB was originally established in 1969 as the Boston Indian Council when it served as the hub of social and civil rights activities for the American Indian/Alaska Native and First Nations urban Indian community in Boston. The Boston Indian Council was first headquartered in Dorchester and moved to Jamaica Plain in 1974. The center was reorganized as the North American Indian Center of Boston in 1991. The building is home to Native people from Massachusetts and from across the country and Canada. Members were part of the inaugural National Day of Mourning in 1970; the Longest Walk in 1978; the fights for federal recognition in this region; in 2005 members successfully lobbied the repayment of a 330-year-old colonial-era law that prohibited Native Americans from entering the City of Boston — all from the NAICOB building. Robert memorialized this history with a mural that speaks to the community's enduring power in Boston. The mural overlooks NAICOB's outdoor space, which is currently being cultivated as a food forest and traditional medicine garden. He activated the space with community socials.
Robert's mural is complete. To join our community-led effort to transform this outdoor space, contact [email protected].
Robert's public art can also be found in community spaces on Sachem Street in Revere, MA; in dormitories at the University of Massachusetts Boston; and in a mobile collaboration with three other Native artists honoring Native Boston Marathon runners. Peters continues to write, paint, and work with youth. He is a fire keeper and a keeper of oral tradition.
Boston's Urban Indian History
This project, led by Janelle Pocowatchit (Miꞌkmaq and Comanche Nation) and Shirley Paul (Miꞌkmaq), will create an archive of newspapers and oral history recordings that illustrate Boston's urban Indian history. Between the 1970's and 1980's, the Boston Indian Council published a newspaper at the Center. The Native authors who contributed to this paper covered stories of our community members in the City, and important events from across Indian Country. Thanks to a partnership with the Tufts Archival Research Center, the surviving newspapers will be available to our community members, and to the public.
To complement these primary historical records, longtime NAICOB community member, Shirley Paul, shares her memories of the Center and a place in Boston that was once colloquially known as "Indian Park" in the South End neighborhood. It was home to many unhoused Indigenous peoples who were serviced by our organization. NAICOB has transformed many lives in its over 50 year existence. Shirley shares her first-hand stories of Indian Park and the role that the Boston Indian Council played during the time or urban Indian removal policies that brought Native peoples to Boston.
In print and video, we explore the importance of placemaking for the urban Indian population and the experiences that have helped to shape our current socio-political experience in Boston.
This project will be completed in 2026.
This project, led by Janelle Pocowatchit (Miꞌkmaq and Comanche Nation) and Shirley Paul (Miꞌkmaq), will create an archive of newspapers and oral history recordings that illustrate Boston's urban Indian history. Between the 1970's and 1980's, the Boston Indian Council published a newspaper at the Center. The Native authors who contributed to this paper covered stories of our community members in the City, and important events from across Indian Country. Thanks to a partnership with the Tufts Archival Research Center, the surviving newspapers will be available to our community members, and to the public.
To complement these primary historical records, longtime NAICOB community member, Shirley Paul, shares her memories of the Center and a place in Boston that was once colloquially known as "Indian Park" in the South End neighborhood. It was home to many unhoused Indigenous peoples who were serviced by our organization. NAICOB has transformed many lives in its over 50 year existence. Shirley shares her first-hand stories of Indian Park and the role that the Boston Indian Council played during the time or urban Indian removal policies that brought Native peoples to Boston.
In print and video, we explore the importance of placemaking for the urban Indian population and the experiences that have helped to shape our current socio-political experience in Boston.
This project will be completed in 2026.
Solomon Northup Temporary Installation
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In partnership with the City of Boston's Un-Monument team, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and the New Democracy Coalition, NAICOB brought the traveling exhibition Solomon Northup: Hope Out of Darkness to Boston during the summer of 2025. The bronze by the Wesley Wofford Sculpture Studio commemorates the abolitionist legacy of Solomon Northrup toward Black and Indigenous self-liberation.
Northrup was born free — his mother free and his father only freed by manumission — and lived with his wife and children in Saratoga Springs, NY. In 1841 he was lured to Washington, DC for work where he was trafficked and sold into slavery in Louisiana. For 12 years, Northrup was enslaved. In the first year after his rescue, he published his narrative, 12 Years A Slave, and was an outspoken abolitionist, lecturing across New England. During the 1850's, he visited Boston to organize in coalition with area abolitionists at the Sacred Heart Church and Meloanan Hall at Tremont Temple. Solomon Northup: Hope Out of Darkness stood near the Boston Harbor Islands Welcome Pavilion from October through December of 2025. The Boston Harbor Islands, principally Deer and Long Islands, were used to imprison Indigenous peoples, the majority of whom died or were enslaved. To complement the temporary installation, Irvin Weathersby Jr., author of In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space, offered a reading and discussion on Black and Indigenous efforts to create space among the enduring specter of white supremacy in our art, monuments, and public spaces. |
Photo credit: Solomon Northup Committee For Commemorative Work
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Acknowledge + Listen: Undoing Colonial Design in
Massachusetts
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During the 2020-2021 academic year, NAICOB partnered with a team of students and faculty from the Lesley College of Art and Design to create a series of interactive research documents, a public art installation, and podcast that uplifts several Native cultural and political leaders. The project gave context to a bill to reconsider the racist seal, motto, and flag of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that passed after 30 years of advocacy.
Acknowledge + Listen was first installed at the deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum from June 2021 to May 1, 2022. It was then installed on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in 2023 until 2025. The piece will be installed at NAICOB in 2026. |
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Indigenous Leaders Memorialized at The Embrace & 1965
Freedom Plaza
In January 2023, The Embrace and the 1965 Freedom Plaza was unveiled on the Boston Common, the first public park in our nation. The memorial is a landmark permanent cultural symbol of equity and justice for Boston residents and all those who visit the city. The artwork represents the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King’s love and powerful presence in Boston, a time that helped shape their approach to an equitable society. The 1965 Freedom Plaza that surrounds The Embrace honors 69 local civil rights and social justice contemporaries of the Kings who were active in Greater Boston from 1950 –1975.
The Indigenous leaders whose legacies are honored on the Plaza and their stories told online:
Wamsutta Frank James (Aquinnah Wampanoag)
Shirley L. Mills, Misqua Wahan (Diné, adopted Mashpee Wampanoag)
Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, Naguset Eask (Mi'kmaq)
The Indigenous leaders whose legacies are honored on the Plaza and their stories told online:
Wamsutta Frank James (Aquinnah Wampanoag)
Shirley L. Mills, Misqua Wahan (Diné, adopted Mashpee Wampanoag)
Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, Naguset Eask (Mi'kmaq)
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