Last summer, we had the honor of hosting Mishoon Camp 2025 in partnership with our Nipmuc Indigenous partners. Over the course of seven days, community members came together to bring a traditional dugout canoe—a mishoon—to life through a careful, fire-guided process that requires deep focus, patience, and collective effort.
This practice is more than craftsmanship; it is an expression of resilience, cultural continuity, and community collaboration. For Norcross, hosting Mishoon Camp was a profoundly meaningful experience. It fostered connection and cultural revitalization within the Nipmuc community, strengthened relationships, and created a powerful opportunity for public education and cross-cultural understanding.
The short video you’re about to see captures both the beauty of the process and the significance of what it means to host this work on the land.
