Blog: Voices of Decolonization
The Permanent Commission’s Place Justice Initiative Seeks to Redress Historical Harms
October 06, 2022
by Meadow Dibble Upper and Lower Negro Island. Uncle Tom’s Mountain. White S-word Island. Some of Maine’s most beautiful islands, summits, and brooks are marred by racist names that are offensive to Black and...
Read More ShareTRUTH-TELLING INITIATIVE TO FOCUS ON MAINE INDIAN LAND CLAIMS
September 26, 2022
Beyond the Claims– Stories from the Land & the Heart Wabanaki REACH, a Native-led nonprofit organization, has launched its newest truth-telling initiative focused on the Maine Indian land claims, Beyond the Claims– Stories from...
Read More ShareSpirit of Black Mountain
September 01, 2022
by Brian Altvater During the last few cold and windy days of December, I decided to hike to the top of Black Mountain. I was very excited, especially since it had been a...
Read More ShareTeaching with the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Archive
August 04, 2022
by Marieke Van Der Steenhoven, Special Collections Education and Engagement Librarian, Bowdoin College How do you prepare to bear witness—even if from a distance—to genocide? Bringing the archive of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare...
Read More ShareTruth, Healing, and Reconciliation in Maine
July 07, 2022
by Maria Girouard When I was first approached to work on TRC efforts, I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic. As a Penobscot historian, I was well aware of the legacy of trauma that Wabanaki people...
Read More ShareDecolonizing While in Colonial Systems: Serving as Tribal Ambassador to the Governments that have Historically and Perpetually Oppressed our Nations
June 02, 2022
by Maulian Bryant In 2015 the Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe voted to remove their Representatives to the Maine State Legislature. The Representatives held seats in the House (lower) chamber, could sponsor legislation,...
Read More ShareThanksgiving Revisited
May 05, 2022
by Crow Suncloud (AKA Tom Newman) From the dawn of history when the people were one and the gatherings weren’t of need but were life, there was nothing to turn back to, nowhere...
Read More ShareA SPIRITUAL CANOE JOURNEY
April 07, 2022
by Butch Phillips, Penobscot Nation (An excerpt from “`Wilderness within Wildness without’ by Bridget Besaw) During an up river canoe trip to Katahdin, our sacred mountain, my son Scott and I paused to...
Read More ShareBoarding Schools Truth & Healing
March 03, 2022
by Erika Arthur [Warning – painful content on Indian Boarding Schools below] In May, 2021 the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation of Canada announced that they had discovered the bodies of 215 children...
Read More ShareThere is More Good Work To Do
February 03, 2022
by Jeffrey Hotchkiss In 2009, I learned of my connection to an infamous act of violence against Indigenous people. My family name was on the four cannon that helped to kill hundreds of...
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