Basket making in Abenaki

Language keepers

By Donna Laurent Caruso“L8dwaw8gan wji Abaznodakaw8gan” (The Language of Basket Making) is a newly available book (November 2010, Bowman Books, New York) by Jesse Bruchac with Elie Joubert and Jeanne Brink that presents a unique way to continue the revitalization of the Abenaki language.

Bruchac writes in the preface that this is “the first attempt at creating a ‘how-to’ manual within the Abenaki language.” Western Abenaki is translated into colloquial English in a series of steps with clear black and white photographs showing the process–and thus revealing the culture–of wood splint ash basket making in the Wabanaki culture.