Marblehead honored its sixth annual Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday at Abbot Hall, where storyteller Anne Jennison captivated attendees with the rich traditions and histories of the Abenaki/Wabanaki people, continuing the town’s commitment to celebrating Indigenous cultures since officially replacing Columbus Day in 2019.
Marblehead Museum Executive Director Lauren McCormack introduced Jennison and lauded her skills, experience, and expertise in storytelling.
“Anne is a traditional Native American storyteller and historian of European and Abenaki heritage,” McCormack said, Jennison sharing indigenous lesson stories with more than 30 years of experience, also holding masters degrees in storytelling and history.
The event began with Jennison reading a land acknowledgement, her husband ending the acknowledgement playing a song on an Abenaki flute.
Jennison shared multiple stories with those in attendance at the event, beginning with the story of Gluskabe, a being who created himself, and was as “tall as the white pine trees,” Jennison adding that he also had a grandmother who would dole out wisdom, Jennison saying that through many stories, Gluskabe often makes mistakes.
Jennison said that Gluskabe is well known, having many different spellings of his name depending on where and by whom the story is told — “there really are hundred of stories that feature Gluskabe,” Jennison said.
Jennison shared a story of Gluskabe going out into the forest to hunt, eventually finding animals, tricking all of the animals in the forest to go into a game bag which his grandmother made for him, his grandmother admonishing him for taking all of the animals, not leaving any for anyone else to eat that comes after him.
Jennison concludes the story, Gluskabe ultimately returining the animals to the forest, however, his actions had consequences, in that the animals remembered how they were tricked, and became distrustful of future hunters.
After concluding the story of Gluskabe, Jennison shared several other stories, which all contained morals or lessons for listeners, after which she thanked attendees for their time listening to the stories.