Culture-bearer remembered for life’s work

The passing of an inspirational Passamaquoddy culture-bearer, environmentalist and teacher is being mourned not only in his community but throughout the region. David Moses Bridges, 54, had battled cancer for several years and died on January 20 at Sipayik, in his Passamaquoddy homeland.
Of Bridges' life and contributions to the tribe's culture, Donald Soctomah, the Passamaquoddy Tribe's historic preservation officer, comments, "He was a treasure to the tribe, both in his artwork and his outlook on life. He was a good ambassador for the tribe, travelling around the country and doing projects from California to Washington, D.C."
Soctomah continues, "His work on the environment was really uplifting, because he was very well spoken. He spoke to many people around the nation, and the highlight was when he went to the U.N. to speak about the environment." Bridges had addressed the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2008, speaking on protecting indigenous lands and water from environmental threats and highlighting human rights and ecological integrity, and thus sacred sites.
"He was instrumental in teaching Native people how to make birchbark canoes," points out Soctomah. "He traveled to communities in Maine and New Brunswick teaching the sacred art of canoe-making. His canoes will be on the water for a long time, and he taught a whole generation of canoe-makers."
Soctomah notes that Bridges was featured in a number of films concerning his artwork and birchbark canoe-making, including one by a German film crew. He and his son Tobias also were featured in a painting by Andrew Wyeth titled "Threat" that is at the Wyeth Study Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland.
"I remember him as a good friend, he was part of my family, and also as a teacher," says Soctomah. "It's very sad for the community, for his family, his children and his wife."
Passamaquoddy Chief Ralph Dana of Sipayik comments, "Every time we lose a tribal member it's a tragedy." He notes, "David spent a large part of his life and time maintaining our heritage and culture. He will be sorely missed." Chief Dana adds, "It's a tragic loss for all Passamaquoddys."
Hugh French, director of the Tides Institute & Museum of Art in Eastport, observes, "David Moses Bridges was an extraordinary individual. He was part of a new generation that sought to revive and reinvent many Passamaquoddy traditional arts. He took it upon himself to learn the difficult skills of birchbark canoe-making and basket-making. He applied these skills at a very high level and sought to convey what he learned to others. He did this for a very long time. What he learned could easily have been lost. He was a culture-bearer coming at a very pivotal time."
Perry summer resident Andres Verzosa, former director of Aucocisco Galleries in Portland and currently the interim executive director and curator of the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, echoes French's statement, noting, "David Moses Bridges generously embodied the spirit of the Wabanaki people as a key agent of the reawakening of Passamaquoddy culture, heritage and tradition and was a stalwart protector of his ancestral homeland."
Verzosa also points out that Bridges was a passionate educator. "He was a renaissance man that delighted in sharing his mastery, knowledge and insight into the making of birchbark canoes and basket-making. He brought to it a profound sense of reverence for the old ways and a unique perspective of working with sustainable practices for the selection and gathering of indigenous materials with an impressive and encyclopedic intensity."
Concerning his spirit, Verzosa says, "David had an easy congenial way about him and had a natural magnetism that lit up a room, instantly drawing the affection and admiration of all because he was genuine and authentic. David was an inspired and courageous leader of all indigenous peoples in the recognition of their sovereignty and protection of the lands they lived in."
Bridges was a board member of the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, which focuses on the culture and history of the state's tribes, and museum President Cinnamon Catlin‑Legutko comments, "David's passing has truly left a void. Not only was he a loving friend to everyone he knew, he was an internationally known artist and activist. His art was full of story, design and history C his birch bark containers were that of a collector's dreams." Among the awards he was given were being named a Maine Arts Commission traditional arts fellow and receiving a best of traditional baskets award at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market in Arizona in 2015.
"His canoe-building was artistry and tradition in motion," Catlin-Legutko continues. "We are honored to have one of his canoes, built alongside his canoe‑building partner Steve Cayard, in the Abbe's education collection. It was built for use -- to take on the water and experience its extraordinary design and purpose."
She also points out, "He was also a powerful advocate for indigenous rights C working with his people in Maine and alongside indigenous people around the globe."
In a recent interview with David Shultz of Home & Away Gallery of Arctic and American Indian Arts & Jewelry in Kennebunkport, Bridges had stated about his birch bark canoe-building craft: "A lot of times I feel like an ancestor is working through me, especially while I'm gathering. I feel it a lot, but when I'm tuned in with a piece too, I feel like there's some ancestor that's gliding through, and that gives me a lot of soul satisfaction right there. I get a lot of serenity from the material, I really do; 3,500 years of tradition came this close to being gone -- it was that close, and that's too close; it's a defining aspect of the Passamaquoddy Tribe."
Paralleling the near loss of birch bark canoe-building was the near disappearance of the tribe itself. Noting that in 1900 there were only 252 people on the census at Pleasant Point, Bridges observed, "We were coming pretty damn close to extinction, and those 252 people held on for dear life. They held onto the traditions, to the language, to the songs, to the medicine; they hung on to everything. We still have all that. That simple statement, 'We're still here,' is really loaded with a lot of sentiment for a lot of people ... what those guys had to put up with throughout their lives, just struggling to keep their families together, trying to make ends meet. Holding on to that tradition, and above all of that, staying connected to the homeland, never giving up on the homeland."
The life's work of David Moses Bridges has helped ensure that the tribe's culture and traditions will indeed live on as a testament to his determination and spirit in the Passamaquoddy ancestral homeland, the land of the dawn.