Skip to Content

Theatre company unveils interactive art installation to honor Lenape tribe

<i>KYW via CNN Newsource</i><br/>Curio Theatre Company marked Indigenous Peoples' Day by unveiling an empty wooden flower bed outside its building on Baltimore Avenue.
Willingham, James
KYW via CNN Newsource
Curio Theatre Company marked Indigenous Peoples' Day by unveiling an empty wooden flower bed outside its building on Baltimore Avenue.

By Madeleine Wright

Click here for updates on this story

    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — A new art installation in West Philadelphia is paying tribute to the first inhabitants of our region.

Curio Theatre Company marked Indigenous Peoples’ Day by unveiling an empty wooden flower bed outside its building on Baltimore Avenue.

There’s a sign asking the community to fill up the flower bed with Lenape soil to acknowledge the land the tribe lived on.

Paul Kuhn, artistic director for Curio Theatre Company, said he built the art installation after his ancestors bought land in Nova Scotia, Canada that was originally owned by indigenous people.

“We got 200 acres for $2,000,” Kuhn said. “And $2,000 probably went to the evisceration of a complete… founders and originators of that soil.”

Kuhn said while pouring the soil doesn’t heal the trauma, he wants to do what he can to right the wrong. If the flower bed is filled by spring, he wants to use it to grow indigenous plants, which played an important role in the Lenape tribe as a source of food and medicine.

More than a dozen employees took turns using a coffee cup to pour soil into the flower bed.

“It’s wonderful people are taking time out to acknowledge people in the homeland,” Barbara Bluejay Michalski, Chief of Culture for the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, said.

Tim Martin is a director for the Curio Theatre Company. As a member of the Yurok tribe in Northern California, he said he appreciates the gesture.

“I was very touched by the people that gathered here today,” Martin said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

Article Topic Follows: CNN - Regional

Jump to comments ↓

Author Profile Photo

CNN Newsource

BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION

KVIA ABC 7 is committed to providing a forum for civil and constructive conversation.

Please keep your comments respectful and relevant. You can review our Community Guidelines by clicking here

If you would like to share a story idea, please submit it here.

Skip to content