As part of Native American Heritage Month, the Memorial Art Gallery is celebrating its history, helping visitors experience dancing, storytelling and culture.

Tribes from across the area come together to celebrate and teach Native American culture.

“We're the original people here,” program director of Friends of Ganondagan Jeanette Jemison said. “This is the homelands for the Seneca. And everyone should be able to know about the original people, the land that they're living in.”

She met guests face-to-face to have open discussions about their heritage.

“It's important to educate people, to help, to break down those barriers that are already there,” Jemison said. “And people might be afraid to approach us or they don't know that, you know, they can ask us questions and where they can learn.”

Giving a taste of their history, many traditional practices were on display for those to touch and see.

“Every belt has its own story and there are documents,” Wampum belt maker Richard Hamell said. “They didn't have writing per se, they had images, mnemonics.”

Like wampum belts used to mark agreements made from traditional shell beads.

“This belt goes back to a treaty in 1700 between Haudenosaunee and the Algonquin Western and Lake Ontario,” Hamell said.

It was a day of remembrance not only for its guests but their own community as well.

“I made this, it's one of my favorites,” Hamell said.  If you look closely at it, those are real wampum beads from 1646-1850, and I like to incorporate an important belt to bring the ancestors into it.”

It prompted everyone to have open discussions and embrace all those who live in our community.

“All of the Native people are very approachable and friendly,” Jemison said. “We're still living and we're still teaching and we're still participating in our culture and heritage.”