Spurlock Sundays: Exploring Turtle Island
- Event Date: Sunday, July 16, 2023
- Time: 12:00 pm–2:00 pm (CDT)
- Location: Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
- Cost: Free
Some Indigenous peoples of North America refer to the continent as Turtle Island. This term derives from numerous oral histories that tell of a turtle that created the earth and holds it on its back. If you look at the continent on a map, you can see that North America resembles the shape of a turtle.
The program will explore several different versions of this creation story and visitors can build their own mini turtle island terrarium, illustrate a map of turtle island, and make their own paper turtles to remind them of the story and history of Turtle Island.
This is also the perfect opportunity to visit our new Welcome to the Pow-Wow (external) exhibit to learn more about the people and culture of Turtle Island!
A note on the image: The Turtle Island emoji was created by Indigenous Anishinaabe Artist Chief Lady Bird who is based in Toronto. The emoji was created for Twitter in honor of Indigenous History Month in 2018.
Contact
For further information on this event, contact the Museum Information Desk at spurlock-museum@illinois.edu (email link) or (217) 333-2360
All participants are welcome. To request disability-related accommodations for this event, please contact Brian Cudiamat at cudiamat@illinois.edu (email link) or (217) 244-5586.