Born: 1958, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the National Endowment for the Arts. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
“From pack baskets woven with curved bellies to fit the sides of our birch bark canoes to fancy Victorian art pieces or potato baskets for the harvest in Aroostook County, Maine Indian baskets have long embodied a way of life and identified us as a Woodland people.”
A passionate advocate for preserving the ash and sweetgrass basketmaking heritage of the Wabanaki tribes of Maine (Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot tribes), Theresa Secord is a master basketmaker, still using the basket molds that she inherited from her great-grandmother to shape her art.
After earning her MS degree in geology from the University of Wisconsin, and a short stint with Mobil Oil, Secord returned to Maine to work for her tribe as the staff geologist in the mid-1980’s. In 1988, she became one of the first apprentices in the Maine Arts Commission’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, learning basketry from elder Penobscot basketmaker Madeline Tomer Shay over the next five years. Determined not to watch traditional basketry fade into history, she co-founded the Maine Indian Basketmaker’s Alliance (MIBA) and became its first director in 1993, mobilizing fellow Maine basketmakers to work together to save their own art and bring forward a new generation of artists. With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, in 2006, MIBA established its own apprenticeship program, supporting more than 200 apprenticeships since then. This program validated elder basketmakers, re-established an ancient tradition through young tribal members, and helped culture bearers of all ages realize cultural pride and income. Secord has taught dozens as a master basketmaker and served as a long-time instructor in MIBA’s tribal community basketry workshops.
Under her leadership, MIBA is credited with lowering the average age of basketmakers in Maine from 63 to 40 and increasing numbers of weavers from 55 to 200. For her commitment to sustaining Wabanaki culture, Secord was named a Community Spirit Award recipient in 2009 by the First Peoples Fund. In October 2003, she became the first U.S. citizen to receive the Prize for Creativity in Rural Life from the Women’s World Summit Foundation granted at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, for helping rural basket makers rise out of poverty.
A nationally recognized basketmaker, Secord has won many awards, including Best of Basketry at Eiteljorg Museum Indian Market, and several first place awards in Basketry at Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market (Phoenix, AZ) and the storied Santa Fe Indian Market (Santa Fe, NM). Secord was named the 2011 Traditional Arts Fellow for Maine and the 2013 Maine Master Craft Artist of the Year. Her baskets have been purchased by collectors and museums throughout the U.S. and have appeared in several exhibitions, most notably, The Language of Native American Baskets, from the Weaver’s View at National Museum of the American Indian in New York.
Since retiring from MIBA after 21 years, Secord continues her work as an artist and passionate cultural advocate. Her latest work encourages ongoing conservation of the sacred ash trees against the emerald ash borer beetle.