Deborah Spears M
Deborah Spears Moorehead (Kutoo Seepoo) is Wolf Clan, Black Goose band of the Seaconke Pokanoket Wampanoag Nation whose Indigenous homelands are Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She is a direct descendant through his daughter Amie, of the 1620 Supreme Pokanoket Chief Sachem Massasoit who met, befriended, and saved the lives of the Pilgrims. Her ancestry is also from Sassacus of the Pequot Nation, John Sassamin of the Massachussets, Nanawausauk of the Nipmuc and also has ancestry is from the Narragansett and Cattabwa Nations.
Deborah is a Conceptual Fine Artist specializing in Paintings, Murals and Sculpture, Entrepreneur, Traditional Storyteller, Cultural Bearer, Arthur, Music Composer and Performer.
She holds a Masters in Arts in Cultural Sustainability from Goucher College and a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture from Swain School of Design now owned by the University of Massachussets. She has also attended RISD and Brown for Sculpture, Jewlery, and Creative Writing.
She is the Author of "Finding Balance The Oral and Written History and Genealogy of Massasoit's People," published by Blue Hand Books and "Four Directions at Weybosset Crossings, both books available on Amazon and this website.
She owns and operates Painted Arrow Studio-Talking Water Productions., where she creates art and teaches private lessons. She is the founder and owner of Turtle Island Native American Tourism Co.
Deborah is also a founding member of the learning, teaching and performing Eastern Woodland Native American women's singing group Nettukkusqk Singers . (my sister) who have performed for over thirty years throughout Turtle Island.
All of Deborah's work and performances serve to educate, assert, promote, value, and validate the identity of the past, present and future generations as well as address the historic colonial erasure of Eastern Woodland Native American people.
As an emic observer, immersed in her own cultural heritage, her work is homeland based and every piece has a unique story. Her interest are in the values, strength and beauty of Indigenous people and their ability to thrive into the future through adversity.
Since 2022 to present, Spears- Moorehead is one of the "Distinguished Scholar and Artist in Residency" at Bunker Hill Community College BHCC of Boston where she is creating a large scope of work and workshops specializing in the content of Native American art, cultural democracy and equity. In 2021-22 " Deborah was an "Artist in Residency at Brown University " where she created a four panel mural on racial equality titled" Perceptions of Organizational Change through a Kaleidoscope of Color. " This mural was displayed in 2022 at The John Nicholas Brown Nightingale House and also in an exhibit in 2023 called Monatash at the Mary L. Fifeild Art Gallery at BHCC. She recently sold her mural titled "Fifty Mishoonash "initially commissioned by the Nolumbeka Project and then sold to the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Museum of Deerfield Massachussets. In 2023, The Dudley Farm, Quinnipiac Dawn-land Museum of Guilford, Ct procured from Spears-Moorehead two murals titled "Quinnipiac Village " and Mystic Wolf" for their permanent collection. In 2023 she collaborated with Sculptor Allison Newsome to create a Three Sisters Steel Rain Catch Sculpture for the PVD festival of Providence. The New England Historic Foundation Society purchased the "Three Sister Sculpture " for Casey Farm of Narragansett , R.I. permanent collection.
Throughout Covid, Deborah painted two community driven outdoor murals, one for The Collective Musem of Wakefield, R.I. and another for Brown University Community Health Initiative . The Brown outdoor mural is painted on a fourteen foot high cement bridge located on Cypress Street in Providence, R.I.
The Mashantucket Pequot Museum where Deborah worked on and off for over twenty five years also has some of Deborah's earlier paintings in their permanent collection and her piece "Granny Squant at Strawberry Thanksgiving "is presently on display in their museum gallery.
Deborah was honored by the Tomaquag Museum with a "Princess Redwing Arts Award" in 2020. In 2017 her drawing "Whoosh "won the Art Contest Award for the National Congress of the American Indian and her painting "Good Energy" and " Whoosh" were both displayed in Congressman David Ciciline's office. In 2015, the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts honored Spears- Moorehead with a Leadership Award for pioneering, creating, and curating the "first ever state" Native American Art Show in Rhode Island. Another award won in 2005 by Deborah Spears Mooorehead was the "Youth Mural Art Award " by the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of The American Indian, titled "Nu Nechum Nupeashkanash" Our Children Our Future. This mural is displayed in the Tomaquag Musem's permanent collection.
Deborah's website is www.deborahspearsmooreheadwampanoagartists.com