Boston is entering its 250th year with a truth that can no longer be pushed aside. The city is making room for the people whose histories shape this land, even when those histories were ignored or rewritten. On November 15, 2025, the Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture and Faneuil Hall Marketplace opened Ways of My Ancestors – Imagery: Lighting the Path to Awareness, a photography series by Hassanamisco Nipmuc artist Scott Strong Hawk Foster. The exhibit runs through January 14, 2026, and features five large portraits placed at both ends of Quincy Market, greeting visitors as they enter and leave one of Boston’s most visited historic sites.
The Grand Opening on November 19 brought together singers, drummers, artists, and storytellers who reflect the strength of their nations. Strong Hawk Foster led a walking artist talk that guided visitors through portraits grounded in lineage and the lived memory of his community. Strong Eagle Daly played flute. Ella Nathanael Alkiewicz read “All Four Directions.” Bruce Curliss offered a stomp dance. Jim Peters of the Mashpee Wampanoag Nation spoke to the significance of seeing Indigenous representation centered in Boston’s historical core.
These opening moments made the exhibition’s purpose clear. These are not decorative images. They are a public statement that the First Peoples of this region are still here. They carry their cultures, their responsibilities, and their futures forward every day.
Portraits That Change the View of Boston’s History
Quincy Market is one of Boston’s most recognizable landmarks, and it stands on land shaped by centuries of Indigenous presence. By placing Foster’s portraits at both ends of the building, the city has created a visual reminder that Native people are not relics. They are part of Boston’s present.
Faneuil Hall Marketplace described the exhibit as the beginning of a long-term arts initiative to connect residents and visitors to a broader range of public art voices. They acknowledged the importance of honoring the living heritage of Native peoples, especially in a place where colonial narratives still dominate most public memory.
Karin Goodfellow, Director of Transformative Art and Monuments for the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, emphasized why this moment matters. She said, “Hassanamisco Nipmuc artist Scott Strong Hawk Foster’s Un-monument commission illustrates the importance of self-representation of Native American and Indigenous peoples after centuries of erasure and misrepresentation in our art and public spaces.” Her words speak directly to what Indigenous communities know well: if we do not tell our own stories, others will distort them.
Mariangely Solis Cervera, Boston’s Chief of Equity and Inclusion, tied the exhibit to the broader responsibility the city holds during Native American Heritage Month. She said, “Public art and cultural storytelling help us understand the histories and communities that define Boston. Native American Heritage Month invites all of us to engage more deeply with Indigenous voices and perspectives.”
A Nipmuc Artist Telling His Own Story
Scott Strong Hawk Foster’s work stands in a long tradition of Indigenous artists who document their communities with care and accuracy. He describes his purpose with clarity and heart. “My ethos as a Hassanamisco Nipmuc artist and cultural preservation photographer is to represent my family and my community authentically; to record compelling images that make known the true stories of our heritage, values, and oral traditions; and to attest to how we are thriving today,” he said.
His portraits are created across powwows, gatherings, and homelands throughout New England. They reflect his Hassanamisco Nipmuc, Mohegan, and Cherokee lineage and carry the stories of the people he photographs. He calls his work a way to educate those who have only learned incomplete histories and to ensure that Indigenous truths take their rightful place in public memory.
Part of a Larger Shift in Boston’s Public Art Landscape
Ways of My Ancestors is part of Un-monument | Re-monument | De-monument: Transforming Boston, a major initiative funded through a $3 million Mellon Foundation grant. It is the city’s most significant investment in public art programming. Boston is one of only nine cities in the United States to receive this level of support through the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project.
The initiative challenges Boston to rethink what the monuments have celebrated and who has been left out of the story. Public art pieces like Foster’s portraits give the city room to imagine a broader history that includes Indigenous narratives not as footnotes, but as central and ongoing.
The exhibit is supported by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Graffito SP, the Office of Historic Preservation, the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet, and the Planning Department. Each partner helped bring Foster’s vision into a public space that has rarely uplifted Indigenous representation.
Honoring the Artist
Scott Strong Hawk Foster has spent years documenting Indigenous life in New England. His work shows the beauty, resilience, and presence of the region’s Native nations. His photography is also featured in the ICA’s Here We Stay exhibition, offering another chance for Boston residents and visitors to see the region’s Indigenous communities through an Indigenous lens.
A Step Toward Repair and Truth Telling
Boston cannot rewrite its history, and it should not try. What it can do is create space for truth. This exhibit marks a shift in how the city sees itself. It acknowledges that Indigenous people are not symbols or artifacts but contemporary communities with deep roots in this land.
Ways of My Ancestors brings that truth forward with honesty. These portraits ask Boston to look directly at the people who have shaped this land long before Quincy Market existed. They remind the city that Indigenous presence is not something to be restored. It is something to be recognized.
They offer a different kind of monument. One built from truth, visibility, and the stories that continue to grow from Nipmuc homelands and the many Native nations that call this region home.
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