Skywatching: Human-Bird Relationships through Time feat. Dr. Bonnie Newsom, Angi King Johnson, and Olivia Olson
Join us in person at Schoodic Institute or online via Zoom on Tuesday, September 8 at 7:00pm for Skywatching: Human-Bird Relationships through Time, our Summer Lecture Series closing event featuring Dr. Bonnie Newsom (Associate Professor of Anthropology and Associate Faculty in the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine), Angi King Johnson (interpretive naturalist and raptor specialist), and Olivia Olson (M.S. University of Maine, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum).
As the autumn winds increase and the days shorten, Acadia experiences waves of migrating sea and shore birds, warblers, and raptors, an annual phenomenon that provides an opportunity to consider human relationships with birds. In this panel discussion, Dr. Bonnie Newsom will present on Wabanaki cultural associations with birds. These stories are grounded in gifts and creations Wabanaki ancestors left behind in shell mounds, and Olivia Olson will share her analysis of bird-related materials recovered from cultural heritage spaces in and beyond Acadia. Angi King Johnston, lead volunteer for the Cadillac Mountain Hawk Watch, will make connections from past to present, describing trends observed over the last thirty years of watching the skies from the highest mountain on the East Coast.
About Dr. Bonnie Newsom, Angi King Johnson, and Olivia Olson
Dr. Bonnie Newsom is a citizen of the Penobscot Nation and an archaeologist interested in the pre-contact lifeways of Maine’s Native peoples. Through her research, Dr. Newsom seeks to humanize past peoples by exploring concepts of identity and human agency. Her current research centers on community-engaged archaeologies, aboriginal ceramic technologies, and Maine’s shell bearing coastal sites. Dr. Newsom’s professional history includes serving as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Penobscot Indian Nation and as Assistant Director for UMaine’s Wabanaki Center. She has a strong public service record which includes serving as Chair of the Repatriation Review Committee for the National Museum of Natural History, a member of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, and a Trustee for the University of Maine System. She currently serves as a commissioner for the Maine State Museum and is a board member for the Forest Society of Maine. Dr. Newsom holds a B.A. in Anthropology and an M.S. in Quaternary Studies from the University of Maine and she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Angi King Johnston is an interpretive naturalist and raptor specialist with almost three decades of experience studying, documenting, and communicating the dynamics of hawk migration across Acadia National Park and the greater Gulf of Maine region. As a longtime participant and leader of Acadia’s Cadillac Mountain Hawk Watch she manages up to 10 volunteers and mentors interns and park service rangers annually while collecting, analyzing, and presenting migration data to thousands of visitors each season. Her work includes identifying and counting individuals of multiple raptor species, including hourly documentation of environmental factors and entering all findings into the national Hawkcount.org database through Hawk Watch Association. Angi’s expertise blends scientific rigor with compelling public interpretation. She passionately shares with visitors and colleagues of all ages the natural history of raptors and conservation efforts; a hallmark of her approach to connecting people emotionally and intellectually with raptor ecology, Acadia National Park and beyond. Across her career—as a National Park Service ranger, research associate, and naturalist—Angi has become known for making complex migration science accessible, inspiring stewardship, and fostering a deeper understanding of the ecological forces shaping raptor movement through the Northeast. When not counting raptors, Angi spends her summers as a whale watching naturalist and visiting her favorite birding spots in Acadia National Park.
Olivia Olson M.S. is an interdisciplinary researcher and science communicator working at the intersection of archaeology, ecology, and climate studies. She holds an MSc in Quaternary and Climate Studies from the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, where her research examined human–bird relationships during the Ceramic Period in Wabanaki homelands at Acadia National Park. Her work in zooarchaeology and conservation paleobiology has been published in Conservation Biology and Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution and she has presented her research at local and national conferences. Olivia currently serves as Public Programs and Volunteer Manager at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. Originally from Islesboro, Maine, Olivia enjoys skiing, making music, and anything that brings her back to the ocean.
Schoodic Institute’s 2026 Summer Lecture Series events are free, thanks to support from our generous sponsor, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust.
