Join us to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day at the MFA. This year, we’re offering free admission for Massachusetts residents. Enjoy gallery tours, engaging family art-making activities, and more! Indigenous Peoples’ Day recognizes and honors the heritage of Native Americans and Indigenous peoples and the histories of their many nations and communities.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day at the MFA is part of the Fenway Alliance’s Opening Our Doors festival, a celebration of the Fenway Cultural District.

Events and Activities

Community Partners

10 am–4 pm
Shapiro Family Courtyard

Stop by to meet representatives from some of our community partners and learn about the great work they’re doing. Participating organizations include the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB), Cultural Survival Organization, Native American LifeLines Boston, Indigenous Peoples’ Day Massachusetts, and Italian Americans for Indigenous Peoples Day.

Drop-In Art Making: Miniature Baskets

10 am–4 pm (last entry 3:45 pm)
Druker Family Pavilion

Discover some of the traditional techniques and materials New England artists use in basketmaking, then create a small basket of your own! Skill, imagery, and surprising material choices can elevate baskets, which are primarily functional, into art objects. This activity was created in collaboration with Erica Nelson Menard (Penobscot), a traditional Penobscot basket maker.

Land Acknowledgement

11 am
Shapiro Family Courtyard

Jenny Oliver, member of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag and head of Dance and Performance Studies at Tufts, welcomes visitors to her ancestral homelands.

Guided Tours

Noon, 1 pm, and 2 pm
Meet at Sharf Visitor Center

Wondering where to start your visit to the MFA? Experience the Museum on a free 60-minute guided tour. Led by knowledgeable guides, look closely at artwork across the MFA’s collections. Learn more about old favorites and discover something new! Participants of all ages and experiences are welcome.

Story Time with Katherine Santos

11:45 am–12:15 pm and 2–2:30 pm
Gallery LG36

Drop by for an interactive reading with Katherine Santos (Choctaw-Apache), fellow for Indigenous Art at Harvard University’s Fine Arts Library. Santos reads the children’s books Powwow Day by Traci Sorell and It’s Her Story: Sacajawea by Randy’L He-Dow Teton. Stay for one story or both! Books are available for purchase in the Linde Family Wing Bookstore and Shop.

Art-Making Demo with Alyssa Harris and Malissa Costa

Noon and 2 pm
Gallery 168

Meet Alyssa Harris (Mashpee Wampanoag) and Malissa Costa (Mashpee Wampanoag, Afro-Indigenous, Cape Verdean) and learn about their practices in weaving, twining, and plant-based fiber arts. Both artists use traditional techniques and use locally harvested native plants to create woven Wampanoag textiles. These weavings are not just utilitarian—they can be expressions of their creators, convey messages, or simply act as beautiful works of art. They also carry on ancestral wisdom and hold culture close, incorporating it into society as a way to decolonize Turtle Island (North America).

Art-Making Demo with Erica Nelson Menard

12:30 and 1:30 pm
Gallery LG34

Meet Erica Nelson Menard (Penobscot) and learn about her work as a traditional Penobscot basket maker. As a young child, Nelson Menard observed her grandmother Philomene Saulis Nelson preparing materials for her ash and sweetgrass baskets and loved the vibrant colors. Many years later, she apprenticed with Theresa Secord, her mentor and cousin, using her grandmother’s basket molds and feeling her guiding presence. Nelson Menard weaves ash and sweetgrass boxes, sweetgrass flats, and other baskets with braided sweetgrass in her family’s distinctive style.

The Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers

1 pm
Shapiro Family Courtyard

Dance with the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers, a group of musicians, educators, and artisans from the tribal communities of Mashpee on Cape Cod, Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard, and Herring Pond in Bourne. The group’s performances of eastern social songs and dances have educated and entertained audiences of all ages at museums, schools, and various multicultural events. Songs are accompanied by a water drum and handcrafted rattles. You’re welcome and encouraged to join in and dance!

Spotlight Talk: Artist Perspective on ‘The Knowledge Keepers’

1:30 pm
Riley Seminar Room

Join acclaimed artist Alan Michelson (Mohawk member of Six Nations of the Grand River and School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University alumnus) as he discusses his site-specific sculptures created for the MFA’s inaugural “Huntington Avenue Entrance Commission.” Michelson’s installation, titled The Knowledge Keepers, honors local Indigenous presence and is, in part, a challenging response to Cyrus Dallin’s Appeal to the Great Spirit (1909), a sculpture that has stood at the MFA’s entrance since 1912. Michelson works in a range of media and materials, and his work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern, MoMA PS1, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Gwangju Biennale.

Spotlight Talk: North African Indigeneity in the Work of Rachid Koraïchi

2:30 pm
Gallery 175

Meet in the Arts of Islamic Cultures Gallery to explore Amazigh indigeneity in North Africa in the work of Algerian artist Rachid Koraïchi. With Nadirah Mansour, assistant curator of Islamic art.

Hawk Henries

3 pm
Shapiro Family Courtyard

Catch a performance from Hawk Henries, an artist, composer, and flute musician of the Chaubunagungamaug band of Nipmuc. He expertly crafts Eastern Woodlands flutes through ancestral and contemporary techniques. His transformative performances create contemplative spaces for unity and meaningful reflection on how we each have the capacity to make change in the world. Through music, discussion, and a note of humor, he weaves a calm, engaging, and thought-provoking experience.