Nanu Medicine is a portrait of Mercy Nonsuch Mathews, a Nehantic elder from southern Connecticut who was married to a Mohegan man. She was one of several Mohegan nanus, a respected elder or mentor, who taught Gladys Tantaquidgeon traditional Mohegan knowledge, beliefs and herbal practices. A beadworker herself, Mercy was photographed in 1912 by the anthropologist Frank Speck, holding a beaded bag that Speck said “is a specimen of her handiwork.”
Title: Nanu Medicine
Image size: 29 x 38 inches
Medium: Colored and graphite pencils, acrylic, watercolor and ink.
2006
Original: $3000