Mihku Paul collection, 2010-2014

Full finding aid (pdf)

Collection Scope and Content

This collection consists of one postcard for Paul’s exhibit “Many Hands: Wabanaki Paths of Learning” and posters for the reception for Paul’s exhibition “Look Twice: The Waponahki in Image and Verse.”

Biographical/Historical Note

Mihku Paul is a poet, writer and visual artist, and an enrolled member of Kingsclear First Nations, N.B., Canada. She holds a BA in human development and communication and an MFA in creative writing from the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine. She is author of the poetry chapbook, 20th Century PowWow Playland, published by Greenfield Review Press in 2012. Her poetry has appeared in various journals, both in print and online, and she has read widely in Maine and across the country. She has taught creative writing workshops at the Maine Women Writers Collection. Other work includes a collection of short stories set in Maine.

A contemporary artist with traditional roots, Paul uses her art and poetry to support diversity projects and events in her community, and to educate non-Native people about the condition of Waponahki people in the Northeast. She has worked with children in the Portland school district for over 20 years, providing curriculum enrichment on Waponahki culture and storytelling services. In October of 2009, Paul mounted a multi-media installation at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine. The exhibit, “Look Twice: The Waponahki in Image & Verse,” is a collection of twelve panels that combine archival images of Waponahki history and culture with original poems, colorful medicine wheels and abstract water shapes. A self-taught visual artist with a particular interest in pattern and color relationships, Paul works in pen and ink, watercolor, gouache and mixed media collage. She incorporates traditional Native materials in contemporary forms to bridge the gap between past and present.