Numeenawânutam8ôkanunônash
Our Traditions
Deep gratitude and respect for our ancestors’ courage and perseverance here in Wampanoag homelands lie at the heart of our Weetumuw School community and we give thanks daily together through a recitation called The Morning Address. The following core Wampanoag values encompassed in The Morning Address guide our teaching, our relationships, and our leadership at Weetumuw School:
Sôpwânumuqusush! (Be honest)
Wut8ânutash! (Be brave)
Wâmôs ôkatakanak! (Love others)
Wâânutash (Be wise)
Wut8ânum ôkatakanak! (respect others)
Ahapâsh! (Be humble)
Tâpatôtash! (Be grateful)
Nutawamun
Connecting with our Community
To ensure that our students understand their place and role in our Wampanoag community they regularly visit with and learn from other tribal members and elders in and outside of the classroom.
Nuwtahkeemôwuneamun
Connecting with our Land
As Wampanoag people, we believe that the land is a part of our being. Without it we cease to exist. In Wampanoag when you say “my land” you say nutahkeem. Literally, this means “my land which is a part of me.” You cannot say the phrase “my land” without this final morpheme that means we are connected. We know, and have known for millennia, for as long as we have had a spoken language, that the land on which we live is where we belong because it is us. Being disconnected to it, is as being disconnected from our mother.
Weetumuw School children practice ceremonies, our traditional teachings, and they understand the high expectations that we have for them as our future leaders. They learn and live our Wampanoag values and often our students’ families tell us stories of what their children have taught them! Most importantly, they do all of these things on their homeland. In the spring these teachings take place by the river, and in the summer, by the ocean and lakes. In the fall, they take place in the woods, and in the winter, in our homes and classrooms. Our Wampanoag education is place-based because it must be. Because we are not ourselves without our land.