Join a lively conversation and see stunning visuals of this unique project, the creation of a Visitor Contact Station in Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument reflecting a Wabanaki worldview, which will be a gift to the U.S. National Park Service and open to the public in 2024.
Free program
Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument is located in the present and traditional homeland of the Penobscot Nation in northern Maine. Tekαkαpimək Contact Station, pronounced "de gah-gah bee-mook", is Penobscot for “as far as one can see”.
Tekαkαpimək rises from Wabanaki stories and beliefs, built of mass timber and clad in raw, locally-harvested and milled cedar, with rock anchors deep into cliffside ledge, cantilevering into the surrounding forest yet hidden from view of canoeists below. Architectural designs resulted from a process between Elliotsville Foundation, representatives of the Wabanaki Nations and Saunders Architecture.
Panelists speaking on this project include Norway-based Canadian architect Todd Saunders; 13th generation Passamaquoddy basket maker Gabriel Frey; Tekαkαpimək exhibition writer Jennifer Neptune, Penobscot; and Elliotsville Foundation President Lucas St.Clair.
Event parking will be available in the MaineHealth lot on Free Street courtesy of MaineHealth.
Todd Saunders is a Norway-based Canadian architect known to infuse his contemporary buildings with an artistic sensibility that is deeply in tune with the uniqueness of northern terrains. Born in Gander, Newfoundland, Todd studied architecture at McGill University in Montreal before moving to Norway and establishing Saunders Architecture in Bergen in 1998.
Gabriel Frey is a Passamaquoddy basket maker; whose family has been making traditional black ash baskets for over 13 generations. He is inspired by the natural world and the transformation of a living tree into a functional basket. Gabriel was chosen as a United States Artist Fellow in 2019 and Traditional Arts Fellow by the Maine Arts Commission in 2021.
Jennifer Neptune is a Penobscot basketry and beadwork artist living in midcoast Maine and has worked in the field of cultural preservation for over twenty-five years. She has won national awards for her artwork, specializing in ash and sweetgrass baskets, beadwork, and porcupine quill jewelry.
Lucas St.Clair was born in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine and spent his childhood in a hand-built log cabin with few amenities and a focus on living in harmony with nature. Lucas is President of Elliotsville Foundation, Inc., advancing environmental justice and community-based economic development in Maine.
