Boundless K-12 Curriculum: PLACE

ELIZABETH JAMES-PERRY

A clear case on the wall featuring a piece of jewelry made of black cord and purple shells.
Installation view at the Mead Art Museum of Resiliance, 2022.
A close up of the piece of jewelry made of black cord and purple shells.
Elizabeth James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag, American, born 1973)
Resilience, 2022. Wampum, milkweed plant two-ply, logwood dye, sterling silver. Courtesy of the artist.

ABOUT THE MAKER

Elizabeth James-Perry is an artist and a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head in Massachusetts. James-Perry is an expert in working with quahog shells to make wampum shell carvings and beads, which are deeply connected to her identity. The materials she uses in her art are all connected to her homelands in the Northeast Woodlands. She gardens and wild-harvests many of the raw materials needed for her work.

Quahog shells were once very plentiful along the northeastern Atlantic coast and on the homelands of the Wampanoag.

Three quahog shells

Today, climate change has negatively impacted the health and numbers of quahogs. The shells come from clams and get their distinctive purple color from the minerals in the mud. The natural color variations also make them a useful material for wampum beads and jewelry making.

I enjoy opening each quahog and observing their heft, the unique layered purple tones, and the story I sense unfolding as I carve and drill fairly thick and three dimensional wampum beads, jewelry and rich diplomatic adornment. 

— Elizabeth James-Perry

Additional Resources

VISIT Elizabeth James- Perry’s WEBSITE
LEARN More ABOUT Making WAMPUm

Learn about other objects in PLACE:

necklace made from cord and seashells

What connects people to a place?

A digital print by Justin Beatty of a larger than life indigenous person on the Umass Amherst campus.

How do cultural groups establish presence in a specific place?

A painting by Courtney M. Leonard of the remains of a humpback whale and a red poppy flower.

What does it mean for a culture when access to homelands change?

A photograph by Jeremy Dennis of trees in an eastern forest.

Why is preserving knowledge of a place valuable?

overlapping concentric circles made by ripples in water.

Boundless K-12 Curriculum

* YouTube links to audiovisual materials shared by other creators are included in the curriculum. For more information, including for captioning and transcripts of the suggested audiovisual materials, please contact the audio/video content creators.