βGeo Soctomah Neptune (they/them: Passamaquoddy; born 1988) has been weaving baskets since the age of four, when they first began taking lessons from their grandmother, master basket maker Molly Neptune Parker.
Their name means βtwo medicine beings stand together asΒ one.β They are from the Snowy Owl Clan from the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township,Β Maine, and they are a two spirit and an artist.
By age twenty, Neptune had earned the title of master basket maker, making them the youngest person to date to receive that honor. The labor of weaving begins with the material harvesting. Brown ash, or known as black ash from black ash tree, an indigenous tree to North America to Turtle Island, is used in basket making and has deep ancestral and spiritual connection to Wabanaki people.
Neptuneβs work tells stories of their people and themself as two sprit, though they used to have fear of putting more of their own stories in their work, thinking that it might hurt their sales. Wabanaki baskets are as much in their culture and also a part of the economic systems.
Neptune says in a video, Distinctly Geo: Wabanaki Basketry of Today, made for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, βThe more I am able to step into myself more fully in my everyday life, the more I feel IΒ am coming more into balance with my mental health,Β and my spiritual health, and my emotional health, as well as my physical health. It is making it so much easier for me to tap into thatΒ creative energy and to feel that creative drive.β Their joy of fully being themself shows in their work.
In addition to being a skilled basket maker, Neptune is an activist, educator, model, drag performer, and public servant. In September 2020, they were elected to their local school board, becoming the first openly transgender elected official and the first two-spirit person to run for any office in Maine.β (from βSharing Honors and Burdensβ)
