As American As Cherry Pie

As American as Cherry Pie is a curated picnic and performance within the park that confronts and implicates participants in the history of Deering Oaks Park and so-called “Portland”. Deering Oaks Park has been a space sanctuary from downtown Portland for everyone. For decades you could find children playing in the water fountains on a hot summer day, a family picnicking, King Middle School’s tennis team having practice, or even a ice hockey game on the pond on a cold February day. All of these activities take place on top of Wabanaki Land. This is a site that was once of great significance to the Indigenous population, as it was marshland that fed into Casco Bay. This piece of land was not only sacred to the original peoples, but soon after settler occupation became a place of much violence. Hundreds if not thousands of Indigenous and settler people were killed on this site. I am interested in this forgotten history in context to the everyday life that takes place now in Deering Oaks Park.

I will lay out a picnic with red gingham tablecloths, picnic basket, and cherry pie, a seemingly “all American” picnic. Printed on the linen napkins will be histories of this site from pre-colonial times to the present day, where it serves as an encampment to unhoused people after the city closed the shelter. The purpose is to engage viewers to think about their participation in occupying Native land and to reevaluate how their privilege allots them allowances to not see these realities