At the seating ceremony for the Maine Wabanaki-State Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Reverend Robert Grove-Markwood offered this prayer: “May we find love at the heart of the truth that is found... May the truth that is learned shape a new lived reality.”

These words weren’t in the Commission’s formal charge—but they spoke directly to the spirit of its work.

The Commission’s findings captured the lived experiences of Wabanaki people within Maine’s child welfare system. Testimony and research revealed systemic challenges: reluctance to embrace kinship care, overrepresentation of Wabanaki families in state custody, discrimination, and resistance to tribal self-determination. The Commission named this plainly: cultural genocide is ongoing.

Yet truth-seeking goes beyond the publication of a report. Scholars Bennett Collins and Ali Watson observed that the Commission’s final report, Beyond the Mandate, was never meant as a conclusion—but rather as a call to continued action. This challenges the notion that truth and reconciliation can be confined to a timeline or closed with a single document.

Truth-seeking is a collective responsibility. The Commission urged the public, service agencies, and tribal communities alike to engage in ongoing truth-telling, and to contribute stories and knowledge to the permanent archive at Bowdoin College.

Wabanaki people with lived experience shaped this process, and affirmed that for us, truth-seeking means:

• Creating space for learning, grieving, and healing
• Rooting practice in Wabanaki values: generosity, reciprocity, love, and responsibility
• Reclaiming Wabanaki knowledge systems—language, ritual, ceremony, teachings
• Owning one’s story to foster healing and inspire accountability across generations

As one Wabanaki participant shared, truth-seeking means “finding belonging not only by naming what has been done to us—but also what we have done to others … it means restoring ourselves through acknowledgment, responsibility, and truth.”

One Maine District Court judge said plainly: “There are components of simple empathy, care, and understanding that could change the orientation toward...children who are involved in court proceedings—but that’s not something that you can get by changing a statute.”

REACH embraces this broader, deeper vision for reconciliation. We center restoration: of land, ceremony, and relationships. We work alongside Wabanaki communities and engage all Maine people in understanding the past, honoring the present, and building a just future.

For non-Native people, authentic truth-seeking invites us to:

• Examine what we know—and what we’ve avoided
• Name harm caused by action and inaction
• Commit to stopping harm, repairing it, and preventing its recurrence
• Honor those who speak truth—and let it transform us

REACH’s work is guided by a central question: How will this benefit Wabanaki people? In our programs, partnerships, and conversations, we strive to support collective movement toward truth, equity, and healing—grounded in right relationship, compassion, and joy.