SKOWHEGAN — Barry Dana is scheduled to be the next speaker in the Skowhegan History House Museum & Research Center’s Wabanaki Voices Speaker Series.

The next talk will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 8, at the Margaret Chase Smith Library, 56 Norridgewock Ave.

Dana will share his process in creating a new mural, commissioned by the Skowhegan History House, depicting life along the Kennebec prior to European contact. This event will be an open ended conversation about history and culture along the Kennebec.

He will offer visual representations of his experience of his culture, his tradition and the natural world, according to a news release from the history house.

Dana was born and raised on Indian Island. He is a self-taught painter, birch bark basket maker, educator and former chief of the Penobscot Nation. After graduating with a forestry degree from the University of Maine, he got a degree in education and for 14 years taught a course to strengthen the connection with nature and culture for the elementary school children on Indian Island.

This course evolved to his current school visit program that has taken him all over the state to share his culture and traditions with non-native children of all ages. He has dedicated his whole life to preserving Wabanaki culture and language through his school visits and through his basket making and painting.

This event is free. For more information, call 207-474-6632.

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