S_Adams' VirtualTourist Home Page

Like so many others, I'm the transplanted product of mixed-European heritage - the result of the colonialist migrations to the Americas. I don't know my ancestors, nor their traditions, nor the landscape to which I should belong...but I want to know. And I want to build clear links between myself, my ancestors and the landscapes they came from.
I'm sure about some of the places: Tjølling, Vestfold Norway; Holton cum Beckering, Lincolnshire, England. I'm also on the trail of ancestry in Northern Ireland, near Belfast, I think...there may even be a bit of Mi'kmac or Abenaki from Maine and Nova Scotia.
Tying myself to these ancestral lands is the motivation for a series of artworks as well as a Doctoral thesis I'm currently undertaking. It's all very exciting.

My travel plans are finally in order - and my tickets bought and paid for.
I'm calling ii my Pilgrimage Tour 2008 - because that's really what it is. The trip traces my family's roots from Europe to North America and gives me the opportunity to walk across my ancestral landscapes. I can't imagine how that is going to feel, but can imagine that it will be powerful, somehow.
So here they are: I'll leave Perth for Bristol, UK on July 30th (2008), then to Norway Aug 6 - 16, to Ireland Aug 17 - 25, Nova Scotia Aug 26 - 29, Boston, MA Aug 30 - Sept 28, Washington DC Sept 29 - Oct 2, Fayetteville, NC Oct 2 - 5, Fort Collins, CO Oct 6 - Nov 9, San Francisco Nov 10 - 13, Wellington NZ Nov 16- 19.
While in the UK, I'll be staying near Exeter and traveling around Northern Cornwall (Dartmoor, Tintagel).
In Norway, I'll stay for a few days in Oslo, then go stay in Larvik and look for family homesteads in Rekkevik and Tjølling, visit Kaupang and Sandefjord and Tønsberg.
In Ireland I will travel around the north, staying in Dublin, Athlone, Sligo, Ballycastle, Omagh and finally Navan.
In Nova Scotia, I'll stay in Digby and visit Bear River, Annapolis Royal and Clementsport.
While in and around Boston, I'll stay with family and friends, attend an Adams Family reunion, check out the Peabody Museum (Salem) the Peabody Museum at Harvard, carve my first rock glyph and take a trip up to the Concord, NH area to visit old friends. I might even go up to Portland, ME - if time allows.
In DC I'll visit The National Museum of American Art (especially to see James Hampton's "The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly") and the National Museum of the American Indian (can't wait!) - I'll also take a day to travel up to Baltimore to visit the American Visionary Art Museum.
The entire purpose of my trip to Fayetteville is to spend a few days with my one and only sister.
While in Fort Collins, I'll stay with more family and carve my 2nd rock glyph. Together we’ll also travel to New Mexico to visit and interview an amazing couple I met 3 years ago - native artists living near Taos.
In San Francisco, I'll be interviewing more artists and sacred scholars in connection with my doctoral research - and have a good look around the city!
Wellington is my final destination and the main purpose of the visit is to visit the Te Papa Museum (and otherwise to check out the city)
All up, I'm away for just under 4 months. I can hardly wait to begin.