Excerpt of Bonac History Documentary Debuts at Springs Fest

Hugh King is not a Bonacker — that is, he said, someone who grew up around Accabonac Creek in Springs, north of the Long Island Rail Road bridge, and likely whose family has a long history of living there.

Bonackers are believed to be from the descendants of early settlers of East Hampton. Their children became the baymen and women who forged the close-knit community that is praised even to this day for its cultural and historical significance, King said.

“The first families settled right around the green where the town pond is and cemetery is, and immediately they began trekking down the Accabonac,” said King, a retired teacher and East Hampton Village historian who is featured in an upcoming documentary about life and culture in the area. “That’s where, I believe, Springs began … That’s why they are called ‘Bonackers.’”

A short screening of the film “The Bonackers,” directed and produced by Joanne Friedland Roberts, headlined SpringsFest over the weekend.

The two-day event celebrated the cultural, historical, and spiritual significance of the Springs Historic District, which included music by Real East End Brass and Hopefully Forgiven, as well as food trucks and beverages set up along the Blacksmiths Shop, Ashawagh Hall and Community Presbyterian Church on Parsons Place.

Just down the road are the Springs General Store and the Pollock-Krasner House, the former home and studio of the two abstract painters and National Historic Landmark maintained by Stony Brook University.

“I’d like to introduce you to what we call ‘Heart of Springs,’” said Deanna Tikkanen, the president of the Springs Historical Society and Community Library.

“This is an important part of our community, and we need to know how our community is,” Tikkanen said. “While it has changed so much over my lifetime, history gives people a sense of belonging to your community.”

In the 17th century, the Springs neighborhood was based on fishing, with some farming and whaling. They learned to survive, and later thrive with commercial sales reaching New York City and into New England, thanks to the Montaukett people, who were the original inhabitants of Springs. The Village of East Hampton was later founded in 1648.

The community was isolated from the rest of the South Fork until the late 20th century. In 1945, artists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner moved to Springs, which led to the creation of an enclave of artists and writers in the area.

For Roberts, the creator of the film “The Bonackers” and an organizer of the “Celebrating Bonac: The Arts, Culture, and Traditions of the Springs” event, she said preserving Springs history is a community effort.

She started shooting on her iPhone before raising money at local events, and by last October, she brought a small film crew to the bays, farms and fields which the families of the exhibitors at Springs Fest called home. The full documentary — featuring archival film from LTV-East Hampton and photographs preserved by the Historical Society — is expected to be released in the new year.

“It’s amazing to me how many of you have come together to share your traditions and your wisdom and your art,” Roberts said. “This whole community has really come together to enjoy each other.”

David Bennet brought a few dozen pieces from his few hundred piece decoy collection, featuring hand-carved birds, ducks and other waterfowl in vibrant and realistic colors. Albie Lester showcased his wampum, shell-carvings that were produced after a lifetime as a Bonacker fisherman.

Bess Rattray, in collaboration with the Peter Matthiessen Center, read from Matthiessen’s “Men’s Lives,” sponsored by Adelaide de Menil and The Rock Foundation, about the disappearing way of life of eastern Long Island fishermen.

“I think his words are more valuable than ever, but this kind of life is more under threat than it ever has been,” said Alex Matthiessen, the author’s son and an environmentalist living in Sagaponack. “There is so much money out here. There is so much materialism. There is a disconnect that we have with the source of our food and the cultural connections that the community here has been able to preserve in Springs.”

Shane Weeks, of the Shinnecock Nation, shared relics from the whaling days, along with his artwork and other Indigenous artifacts. Patty Collins Sales exhibited her whelk art collection, and sold baked goods, too.

Brent Bennett hauled over a few pound traps, a type of fishing gear that uses a series of nets to catch fish. Historic photographs from the East Hampton Town Marine Museum aided his show-and-tell. Jimmy Bennet showed off his family’s antique clam rakes and discussed the challenges of shellfishing in the harbors today.

Prudence Hamilton Talmage Carabine exhibited a selection of her family’s quilt collection, which is now housed at the East Hampton Farm Museum.

“Our Springs families, the Montauketts who were pushed out of Montauk, and the freed Blacks from Gardiners Island, we built this town, and we built this town apparently in a way that everybody else in the world wants to come and live here,” Talmage Carabine said. “We built it with a sense of community and a sense of connectedness that is sadly lacking in this world today.

“We need to hold on to the story about how this place was built and how people treated each other. That’s all we can do,” she said.