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In Wetu, Cooking Pot, Wampanoag pottery, 2001
Ramona Louise Peters (b. 1952)
Mashpee, Massachusetts
Clay, composite
Pot: 17 x 9 1/4 in. diam. Assembled on rocks: 19 x 16 x 16 in.
Collection of the artist
Photography by Jason Dowdle
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Ramona Peters, also known as Nosapocket, is a member of Massachusetts's Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. As a potter, she has helped revive 1600s Wampanoag traditional forms in clay. She finds this work particularly meaningful saying it allows her "the honor of reviving my ancestors' choice of functional art that endures time." Her works, such as this piece, are inspired by Native material culture before European contact. This pot is a representation of a 1600s Wampanoag cooking pot like the ones used inside single family dwellings called wetu. There were often no windows or light except for the fire. The white inlay clay is meant to help locate the pot in the darkened interior. The four points on the top represent the four directions.
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