Theresa Secord

Theresa Secord
Born	1958
Nationality	Penobscot
Alma mater	University of Southern Maine University of Wisconsin-Madison
Occupation(s)	Artist, geologist, activist
Known for	Geology, basketmaking, activism

Theresa Secord (born 1958) is an artist, basketmaker, geologist and activist from Maine. She is a member of the Penobscot nation, and the great-granddaughter of the well-known weaver Philomene Saulis Nelson.^[1] She co-founded, and was the director of, the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA) in Old Town, Maine.^[2]

When apprenticing with basketmaker Madeline Tomer Shay, Secord learned that at the time she was one of few young Wabanaki people being taught to make brown ash and sweet-grass baskets.^[3] After Shay's death, Secord founded MIBA in 1993 as a way to preserve Wabanaki language and culture.^[4] In 2003, the MIBA received the International Prize for Rural Creativity in part for lowering the average age of basketmakers in Maine from 63 to 43.^[5]

Her work has been shown at the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine, at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, and at the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Los Angeles.^[6] She is the great niece of the renowned Penobscot dancer, actress and writer Molly Spotted Elk, and her great-grandmother is Philomene Saulis Nelson, considered an "acclaimed weaver."^[1]

Education

Secord earned a B.A. in geology from the University of Southern Maine in 1981 and an M.S. in Economic Geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984.^[1] She served as Staff Geologist for the Penobscot Nation.^[7] Secord studied weaving and Penobscot language with Madeline Tomer Shay from 1988 to 1993.^[1][2]

Personal life

Secord has two sons, Caleb Hoffman and Will Hoffman. Caleb is a basketmaker apprenticing with Jeremy Frey.^[2]

Awards and honors

• Secord received the "Prize for Women's Creativity in Rural Life" by the Women's World Summit Foundation in 2003 for helping rural basket makers rise out of poverty, becoming the first U.S. citizen to receive this award.^[8][9] She was one of five award winners invited to present her work at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland.^[1]
• In 2009, she received the Community Spirit Award from the First Peoples Fund.^[10]
• She was a recipient of a 2016 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.^[9][11]
• She was the 2017 Bernard Osher Lecturer at the Portland Museum of Art.^[12]

Published works

• Changing Faces of Tradition: A Report on the Folk and Traditional Art in the United States - Chapter 5 Organizing
• Two Maine Forest Pests: A Comparison of Approaches to Understanding Threats to Hemlock and Ash Trees in Maine

References

1. Everett, Deborah; Zorn, Elayne (2008). "Theresa Secord (b. 1958), Penobscot Basketmaker". Encyclopedia of Native American Artists. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 190–192. ISBN 9780313080616. OCLC 328280157.
2. Krol, Debra Utacia (January–February 2006). "Theresa Secord: Weaving New Life into a Dying Art". Native Peoples Magazine. 19 (1): 36–37. ISSN 0895-7606.
3. "Masters and apprentices". My Maine Stories. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
4. Neuman, Lisa K. (November 7, 2010). "Basketry as Economic Enterprise and Cultural Revitalization: The Case of the Wabanaki Tribes of Maine". Wíčazo Ša Review. 25 (2): 89–106. doi:10.1353/wic.2010.0015. ISSN 1533-7901. S2CID 162947995.
5. Mundell, Kathleen (2008). North by northeast: Wabanaki, Akwesasne Mohawk, and Tuscarora traditional arts (1st paperback ed.). Gardiner, Me.: Tilbury House, Publishers. ISBN 9780884483052. OCLC 221960560.
6. "Contemporary - Hudson Museum - University of Maine". Hudson Museum. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
7. Baron, Robert (2010). "Sins of Objectification? Agency, Mediation, and Community Cultural Self-Determination in Public Folklore and Cultural Tourism Programming". The Journal of American Folklore. 123 (487): 63–91. doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.123.487.0063. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 10.5406/jamerfolk.123.487.0063.
8. "Dawnland Voices Wabanaki News". 2004. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
9. "Theresa Secord: Penobscot Nation Ash/Sweetgrass Basketmaker". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. n.d. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
10. "Theresa Secord". Textile Fibre Forum. 29: 26. 2010.
11. Keyes, Bob (June 30, 2016). "Penobscot basketmaker wins nation's highest honor in the traditional arts". Press Herald. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
12. "Maine Gallery Guide". cafedesartistes.mainegalleryguide.com. Retrieved October 11, 2018.