Sherri Loonsfoot-Aldred and Aiyana Aldred, the artists behind the murals that decorate the markers along the Shoreline Cultural Trail, address the crowd during the trail’s unveiling back in June. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Arts & Culture Center)

MARQUETTE — The City of Marquette held its tenth and final Art Week back in June. As part of the celebrations, a new feature along Marquette’s waterfront was unveiled: the Shoreline Cultural Trail.

The trail covers seven miles of Marquette shoreline, from the mouth of the Carp River up to the entrance of Presque Isle Park. A project that’s been in development for nearly a decade, the trail is designed to be a community infrastructure project that supports quality of life and economic vitality in the city, with each of the eight markers inviting community members to actively participate in the area’s culture, history, environment, and heritage.

When it comes to descriptive language, the Shoreline Cultural Trail is infrastructure that focuses on being “place revealing” rather than simply an informational sign. The public art pieces that are attached to each sign are removable, which will allow for the city to showcase the work of different artists throughout the area rather than serving as permanent installations. Sherri-Loonsfoot Aldred, a visual artist also known for her “Mikwendaagozi” oil painting at that used to sit at the entrance to Presque Isle Park, and her daughter Aiyana Aldred, a digital artist, created the works of art that are currently on display within each trail marker, using expressive color and a combination of acrylic and graphic techniques.

“You can go in and check with people’s stories as well. There’s an option on the Marquette Compass (webpage) for people to get their stories written. So I’m hoping that our history gets expanded and our influence on this area, and where we came from. That’s what I’m hoping, and I’m hoping to get a lot of this coming down the road because this is just the start of the project,” explained Loonsfoot-Aldred during an artist talk where she and Aldred, who are both members of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, discussed the specific pieces they created for the cultural trail. “I know a lot of the original families that are actually from the Marquette area, and I want to get their stories. I’m going to go and talk to a lot of them, because not everyone knows to go down there, (scan) the QR code or go online. I’d like to get to a lot of the Elders and offer them tobacco and ask them for their stories, for the history of their family from this land, because from what I hear from the younger ones, there’s some pretty interesting stories from the original families here.”

QR codes are present on each of the cultural trail markers where anyone can scan them and add their own stories relating to the Marquette area, which will be saved online on a webpage so anyone is able to go and view all of the stories from everyone who has a connection to Marquette. Each marker also includes previously known names of the specific area, as well as what the names are in Anishinaabemowin. It’s part of the project’s focus on being “place revealing” rather than place marking, as it helps to unveil stories about the Marquette area that have previously been unknown to both visitors and locals.

“What drew me to that aspect of the project being “place revealing” is that it gives a little bit more agency to the viewer. You, viewing this, get a chance to have the agency or the decision (of) how it makes you feel and you’re less likely to feel like you’re being told what to think,” explained Tyler Dettloff, Director of the Center for Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University and a contributor to the project. “I think this is great for two reasons. One, locals don’t feel like they’re being told where they live, because they never like that. However, if you can tell locals, or if you can show locals that there are multiple layers of stories in the place where they live, they can also retain their own identity of this place and incorporate multiple versions of histories, which is our experience. This is our lived experience.”

Dettloff also emphasized the importance of having Anishinaabe heritage and language so prominently visible along the Shoreline Cultural Trail. Some of the sites chosen for the cultural trail – Gichi-namebini-ziibiing (Mouth of the Carp River), Nagomikong and Nayamekang (Gaines Rock and Whetstone Creek), Bagidaabii-neyaashi (Lighthouse Park), and Jiibaay-manidoo-ziibi (Mouth of the Dead River) – serve as prominent markers of Indigenous life and history in the area.

“For me, I think seeing the Ojibwe language so prominently displayed is something that I believe is in line with the Center for Native American Studies at NMU’s mission, to raise the visuals that might act as cultural mirrors for Native Americans in our town and our city,” Dettloff said. “Mostly, on our campus is really what we’re focused on, as the Center for Native American Studies, but this is a really great partnership opportunity between some scholars in our department and the Marquette Arts and Culture Center. To really bring this language to prominence in this place so that people who are visiting from other places that might have more established tribal nations or even tribal housing, they might have community centers that are a little bit more vibrant with populations. If they come (to) visit this place (and) recognize the language, seeing Anishinaabemowin on a sign is going to be much more familiar, or at least invites that chance to relate to this place.”

The Center for Native American studies was one of many core partners contributing to the cultural trail project, alongside the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, the Superior Watershed Partnership, the Marquette Regional History Center, the Marquette Maritime Museum, and the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at NMU. The Marquette Arts and Culture Center leads the project, who will continue to coordinate and manage the trail’s programs, physical spaces, and virtual resources.

“I feel like I’m reconnecting to the place I live and work because of this project, so I hope that these are invitations for us to all have a conversation and reconnect,” shared Tiina Morin, the Arts and Culture Manager for the City of Marquette. “The signs really mean nothing. It’s the process and the partnerships that they represent. This could disappear tomorrow, but that work that we’ve all done together can’t go away. That’s what the trailhead will represent, then, an actual, physical space for us to have even more intentional conversations.”

Plans for additional, future sites are already in the works, as the cultural trail lives up to its mission of being a living, breathing public installation.

“The multiuse trail is part of our jurisdiction. So we discussed placement, we discussed design, we discussed what we think people are going to want to see. As this trail is put up, visitors and locals alike get the opportunity to learn about the community,” said John Stewart, a member of the city’s Parks and Recreation committee. “I came here 40 years ago, and it took me that long to learn about the community, and this (trail) gives people a head start, I believe. Hopefully, we’ll do more projects like this.”

More information about the Shoreline Cultural Trail, stories from those who have submitted them, and future plans for additional projects and features can be found online at mqtcompass.com/culturaltrail.

Abby LaForest can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 548. Her email address is alaforest@miningjournal.net.