The public is invited to enjoy an afternoon of storytelling in the tradition of the Lenape, the First People, at D&R Greenway’s Discovery Center at Point Breeze from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28.
Located at 101 E. Park St., Bordentown, N.J., the Discovery Center was created by D&R Greenway Land Trust in a renovated historic home that belonged to the exiled King of Spain Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte’s gardener in the early 1800s. The house will be open with exhibits about the history, land and people of Point Breeze, including the Lenape and Bonaparte, birds and the Delaware River watershed. Visitors can learn about the Three Sisters garden, indigenous and heritage crops that are grown in the Historic Garden at Point Breeze.
“Wintertime is when indigenous peoples gather to tell stories,” said Barbara Michalski, known as Chief Bluejay. Of Lenape descent, she is Chief, Keeper of Culture, Storyteller and Public Speaker for the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania. She is a talented storyteller who shares the traditions of the Lenape to remind people that “we are still here.”
Bluejay provided advice to D&R Greenway in development of the Peoples Room inside the Discovery Center at Point Breeze. There, visitors will learn about Lenape language and read stories about land and water stewardship. Chief Bluejay’s intention is “to stress how we should take care of Mother Earth.”
A landmark positioned in front of the Historic Garden at the Discovery Center at Point Breeze is a life-size sculpture of an Atlantic Sturgeon. These huge creatures, that can grow up to 14 feet in length, were once abundant in the Delaware River but were taken to the brink of extinction due to loss of habitat. They depend on clean water to spawn in the Delaware River.
