The life and death of Pocahontas is being celebrated in Gravesend with a series of talks, drama performances and tours.
To mark 400 years since Pocahontas was buried in St George’s Church, the council launched its events programme on Monday (June 20) with a celebration on the MV Balmoral moored at the Town Pier Pontoon.
Guests including the Lord Lieutenant of Kent, Viscount De L’Isle, Vicountess De L’Isle, Deputy Lieutenants Dr Vasudaven and Mrs Dymond and Sir Robert Worcester DL, heard the council’s plans as an invitation extended to anyone with links to Pocahontas to get involved.
Pocoahontas was formally buried on March 21, 1617 in St George's Church
The Pocahontas celebrations will climax on March 21 next year with a procession from the Thames Riverside, up through Gravesend High Street to St George’s Church where a commemorative service will be held.
Visitors from the town twinned with Virginia are expected to join in with the special event too.
Cllr Jordan Meade, Lead Member for Heritage, Tourism and Young People, said: “We want to give due recognition to Pocahontas’ historic and cultural significance within the economic and religious context of her time.
“We really want to highlight the key events of the months leading up to Pocahontas’ death and to retell Pocahontas’ story to today’s generation.”
Pocahontas was the daughter of a Native American chieftain who died off the shore of Gravesend on a return trip to America, after marrying tobacco planter John Rolfe.
Pocahontas’ association with the founding of the first English settlement in America places her as one of the most significant women in early American history.
Other listings throughout this Autumn and Winter include a series of lectures entitled “English religion and politics at the time of Pocahontas”, “Women and gender at the time of Pocahontas”, “The New World – colonies in Virginia and New England at the time of Pocahontas”.
Education outreach activities in local primary schools and community performances by historical interpretation experts, Past Pleasures, are scheduled for Spring next year as well as excerpts from Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1610) set to be performed by Kings School, Rochester in St George’s Church this November.
Shakespeare’s play The Tempest was in fact inspired by the voyage of the Sea Venture on which John Rolfe, Pocahontas’ husband, was shipwrecked in a storm on Bermuda in 1609.
The development of a full new drama about Pocahontas by the young, up and coming playwright and RSC actor Kieran Knowles, entitled “Gravesend” has also been scheduled into the programme.
Regular Gravesend Heritage Riverside tours and visits to St George’s Church, led by local historians and guides are set to begin this summer with the burial register containing the record of Pocahontas’ burial will return to the church for public display on March 19 next year.
To see the council’s full plans or to get involved with events click here
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