Governance Committee
Adriana Giles Ignacio was born on January 27, 1951 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Adriana grew up in the town of Gay Head, now Aquinnah, and is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah.
She attended Island schools until her senior year of high school, and then attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she majored in performing arts. Adriana, her husband Bruce, and her daughters, returned to the Island and built their home in Aquinnah.
From 1987-1997, Adriana worked as the programs director in the Island schools for the Title 4 Indian Education Programs, which offered cultural education and also tutoring help to Island Wampanoag children.
For the past ten years, she has served on the board for the Aquinnah Cultural Center, which is the museum for the Wampanoag people of the Vineyard. The cultural center offers a historical perspective of the Wampanoag people in their own voice.
Adriana has also owned a seasonal gift shop at the Gay Head Cliffs in Aquinnah since 1990.
