Last fall the Sowams Planning team introduced the public to the Sowams Heritage Area Project and the National Heritage Area program. This round of Community Conversations focused on the natural, historic and cultural resources in the Sowams region and the themes that flow from that watershed period in our nation’s history. Click here for the highlights of the public input sessions. Click here for a 3-minute video of the Conversation on March 25th in Seekonk and here for a 5-minute video of the March 26th Conversation in Bristol. Click here for news coverage of the event. Click here for information about the project.

(Above) Steering Committee member Andrea Rounds poses questions in a breakout group at the Seekonk Public Library as Laura McNamara takes notes, John Aubin encourages responses, and Consultant Peter Samuel leads the discussion in another breakout group.

(Above, left and center) Steering Committee member John Larsen welcomes Roger “Gray Fox” Desrosiers and his wife, Donna, to the session in the Barn at Mount Hope Farm, before Point HD Consultant Nancy Morgan welcomes over 60 people to the session. (Above, right) Pokanoket Tribe members She Walks with the Wind and Rainbow Heart offer their ideas about a Sowams Heritage Area in a breakout group.

(Above, left and center) Steering Committee member John Aubin responds to some of the ideas that were offered in one of the breakout group sessions. (Above, right) Nineteen tribal members assemble for a group photo at the end of the session.