I remember how it felt to hear the word spreading among our harvest festival now 10 years ago.  A wave of “We did it!” filled the air among the flint corn field we had seen through its season. The harvest festival held that year celebrated the end of our growing season and turned into an achievement.  We achieved the funds to pay for the home of what we were then known as: the Wabanaki Cultural Preservation Coalition (WCPC).

It’s hard to summarize what happens with an organization over the course of 10 years.  We started on an idea, a prayer, and no funds to back it up.  The idea was to have a place to call home for ceremony, community, and healing based on our knowledge as Wabanaki People and supporters at that time.  Our vision was still forming from this idea into something that would benefit not only the original People of this territory, but their families and supporters alike. And we needed a place to call home.  

Olamon Island is a beautiful island filled with fields and gullies of fiddleheads, hunting grounds, and even mushrooms to sustain long held traditions of our original people.  Old stones foundations from a historic village can still be found among the tribal family camps on Olamon Island that exist even today.  This is where many come each spring to gather fiddleheads to not only find nourishment but pass on gathering practices and recipes of our favorite dishes.  Ceremonies have gone on there for those looking for answers.  Even the roads are well kept for the people to access this space for fishing and hunting.  And it truly is an island, surrounded by a bypass stream from the Penobscot River.  The only land access was across the stream through what was then private property. But this land was not just property.

Anikwom was the first to see both the urgency in establishing this land access, as well as begin the process of healing work. Anikwom was a non-profit which sought the intention of healing through the means of equine therapy and ceremony from Wabanki spiritual leaders.  The land grew homes and a barn with an arena, bringing its own healing energy into Passadumkaeg, Maine.  During the Great Recession, Anikwom was no longer feasible.  The property was then passed onto Suffolk University for experiential learning for the young students.  Eventually, this was no longer feasible for them either, so it was put up for sale.  

When WCPC was formed, it felt like a dream that would be unrealized in the beginning.  A group of us, coalesced from an idea of helping others through ceremony, prayer, and lifeways; we shared this common vision but needed a place to practice, learn and teach each other.  When this land was put up for sale, we saw a potential home for our organization to solidify the access to Olamon Island and see what we could bring to this land to continuing its original intention of healing.   The connection among the generations from long ago into today’s children and grandchildren patiently awaited for those same people to discover its bounty, the teachings behind them, and the belief that this earth, this water and community can not only sustain life but live among abundance.  

So, we set out to achieve something which felt impossible.  With no money, newly formed non-profit, and a limited number of backs to carry this vision, we set down a prayer.  This ceremony showed us the metaphor through which we have lived since that time: support of each other, outreach to the new, and overcoming obstacles that needed our constant attention.  From that moment forward, we knew this was bigger than any of us could completely understand.  We were guided by something greater than us. 

Tenets such as cultural exchange, ceremony, and community started right away with large gatherings such as the Healing of Turtle Island, the Two-Spirit Gathering, and the Women’s Gathering, as well on the ongoing ceremonies from the Native American Church of Wabanaki Land, and sweat lodge ceremonies. 

We saw something more was needed, something to help others see what it is too.  So we gathered for weeks with our shared allies through the hot summer in a small trailer with a whiteboard to refine this vision.  We knew we wanted to help heal the generational traumas of not only our people, but to offer to those extended families and communities.  We saw that the healing process was not something to be done on someone, rather, it was to have a place to allow for this to happen from within.  We found our name: nibezun.  

Nibezun means medicine in the original language of Burnurwubskek.  Think of it as all encompassing of the word itself; it’s the physical medicine, the action of medicine, and the gathering of medicine.  The word represented the highest meanings of nibezun and this vision was not just a place or item to be shared; it was a spirit, one in which we gather, gather around, and share.

We created the Seven Seeds of Healing as a way to understand how this could work.  And the symbol became an understanding of how this all fits together.  The Seven Seeds can represent the ways in which one can be in or out of balance: a reflection of where we are at in this very moment.  They also can represent pathways to restore balance once again.  They become a visual representation of the work in healing our own self, each of them filled with their own teachings and ways to foster healing from within.  Those seeds are:  Mind, Body, Spirit, Culture, Community, Earth and Water.  

From the moment we celebrated the impossible in a field of corn outside the arena, until this moment 10 years later, the only word that would describe our greatest sentiment is gratefulness.  From the founders to the current members of nibezun, the thousands of supporters through the years, generous volunteers, caretakers, ceremonial leaders and supporters and all the children and grandchildren who listened and played, we are grateful.  We’ve learned so much about nibezun and how believing in something more than each of us can impact ourselves and those we serve.  The spirit of nibezun is there to fill your cup, learn something new, teach someone, or just support each other in a world which challenges us every day.  We started 10 years ago now, and we see the effect on each and every one of you who have been a part of this spirit and are grateful that this idea, this spirit, has given us all a way to see within our own healing journeys.  

In this same idea, we would like to invite all of you to our celebration pow wow on September 19, 2026.  We plan to have singing, dancing, and vendors from our tribal communities gathering for this event.  This is the seed of community.  Healing can begin with community.  The pow wow will be held at nibezun in Passadumkaeg, Maine.  More information can be found at: https://www.nibezun.org/powwow