Amid Continued #Sovereignty Campaign, #Wabanaki REACH Creates Play as Part of Truth-Telling Project

Evan Popp, Maine Beacon
Thu, August 31, 2023

"As part of a truth-telling initiative that seeks to illuminate the issue of land claims and the 1980 #SettlementAct as well as celebrate the resilience of #Indigenous communities, the group #WabanakiREACH has partnered with a #Maine-based #theater organization to create a play developed by and for #Wabanaki people.

"The play, titled where the river widens, is an original, community-developed production and is being put on in partnership with #ThreadbareTheatreWorkshop, a group located on the Blue Hill peninsula. The work is the first public offering based on a project in which Wabanaki REACH — an organization supporting Indigenous self-determination through education and other restorative practices — spent a year gathering more than 40 oral history interviews from Wabanaki people and those in Maine about Maine Indian land claims and the 1980 Settlement Act.

"As Beacon previously reported, Wabanaki tribes have long argued that the Settlement Act has stifled tribes’ economic development and allowed the state to treat sovereign Indigenous nations as municipalities, creating a paternalistic and unfair relationship that no other federally-recognized tribe is subject to. Given that, the Wabanaki have created a grassroots movement in the last couple years behind reforming the Settlement Act to recognize the tribes’ inherent sovereignty, but opposition from Gov. #JanetMills has stymied such efforts despite broad support for change from the public.

"Earlier this year, tribal leaders also attempted to pass a bill to ensure that the Wabanaki would have access to most federal laws that benefit Indigenous tribes around the country. Proponents of that legislation noted that because of the Settlement Act, any federal law enacted after 1980 for the benefit of tribes across the U.S. that impacts the application of Maine law doesn’t apply to the Wabanaki unless they are specifically included in the measure by Congress. However, Mills in June vetoed the measure pushed by tribal leaders to rectify that situation.

"Given the power of the stories Wabanaki REACH was able to collect on the subject, Maria Girouard, the group’s executive director, said the organization felt it was important to share those experiences with a wider audience via theater.

“We were so moved by the stories we gathered, it was a natural next step to talk about theater as a way of continuing to move the conversation from the head to the heart, to reach more people, and to gather in community,” Girouard said.

"The play is set outdoors along the #PenobscotRiver, which itself has been the subject of land claim disputes and issues related to tribal sovereignty. It stitches together music, song, dance and the interviews from Beyond the Claims: Stories from the Land & the Heart — the name of the Wabanaki REACH truth-telling initiative.

"A news release about where the river widens also describes it as a 'poetic, spare, lyrical movement through stories, place, and time” and a thought-provoking play that “not only illuminates a complex and tumultuous era, but celebrates the beauty, creativity, and resilience of Wabanaki people.'

"#Threadbare said they are excited to be working with Wabanaki REACH on the play, which features #LilahAkins, #EstherAnne, #NickBear, #WolatqinBear, #AndreaFrancis, #MariaGirouard, #DaleLolar, #GeorgeLoring, #MargoLukens, #JoshuaMcCarey, and #ErlenePaul as co-creators and performers.

"'Threadbare’s way of co-creating, not only with community members but inspired by them, aligns so beautifully with Wabanaki REACH’s values of connection and joy,' said Kate Russell, artistic director of Threadbare Theatre Workshop. 'I am grateful for the generous folks who have come together this summer to create and perform this play — they are brilliant.'

"There will be two public performances of the hour-long play on Indian Island on Sept. 16 and Sept. 17 at 5 p.m. With space limited, those who want to attend must register ahead of time to reserve seats by visiting wabanakireach.org."

https://news.yahoo.com/amid-continued-sovereignty-campaign-wabanaki-222018960.html

#IndigenousNews #WabanakiConfederacy #PenobscotNation #Maliseet #Passamaquoddy #Mikmaq #FirstNations #MaineTribes #Arts #Theatre #TruthTelling #NativeAmericans

Today’s reading Country: Future Fire, Future Farming by Bill Gamage and Bruce Pascoe explores how First Peoples in Australia grew food and managed the country with fire. Important #truthtelling that we need to listen to.

“Summum bonum in populo est bonum imperium. Fundamentum gubernationis boni est veritas.”

#GeorgeOrwell #deceit #TruthTelling

The Tyee: Celebrate Indigenous History Month with Talking Stick Fest https://thetyee.ca/Presents/2023/06/02/Talking-Stick-Fest-Summer-Kickoff/ #bcnews #TheTyee - via @tyee@mstdn.ca #TruthTelling:SevenConversationsAboutIndigenousLifeinCanada #NationalIndigenousHistoryMonth #AlexisNakotaSiouxNation #LisaCookeRavensbergen #ColdLakeFirstNations #FirstMétisManofOdesa #FullCirclecollective #TalkingStickFest #TruthTellingbook #MichelleGood #LoganStaats #NathanMudge #DJKookum #PuraFé

"While we were waiting for the bus, I asked my stepdaughter where the money from the box was. Her first reaction was to feign confusion. 'What money?!?' She asked."

My stepdaughter lied to me and it led to a much deeper life lesson in which I think we can all use a refresher: telling the truth.
#TruthTelling #lies #HalfTruth #integrity #parenting

https://jeremyzerby.medium.com/half-truths-are-no-better-than-lies-20aa83e8287f

Come and check out all the new reading up at @CroakeyNews: https://www.croakey.org/ #PatientCentredCare #CrystalBalls #SDOH #HealthReform #LongCOVID #TruthTelling #HealthBudget2023 and more....

“Truth is like fire; to tell the truth means to glow and burn.” ~ Gustav Klimt

#GustavKlimt #TruthTelling

RT @2019_winston@twitter.com

Cracking speech #DemolishesToryWhatAboutism
#MythBusting #TruthTelling #GTTO https://twitter.com/bestforbritain/status/1615732854956212224

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/2019_winston/status/1616006009725808641

“Who you are beats what you got.” Mike Mentz #SongLyric #ActualVirtue #LifeValues #TruthTelling #TellItLikeItIs #MikeMentz

@robert

You are so right. About their values.

This is not a group of people who can think about #PublicService in a meaningful way.

This is not a group of people who have allegiance to concepts like #constitutionality, #TruthTelling, #ProceduralJustice, or #DoingTheRightThing. They are not there to serve the country or the #BestInterests of *all* of its people.

I'm ashamed, as a US citizen, to acknowledge this; however, it does seem to be the case.

@Paulatics
#USpolitics
@ethics

I think I might spend the stroke of midnight drinking flat beer and listening to this, whilst mascara runs down my face and fireworks go off in the distance.

https://youtu.be/aRULtXn6W0s

#KaeTempest #Poetry #TruthTelling #NYE #NewYearsEve

Individuals with autism are no different from anyone else when it comes to honesty and integrity. In fact, many people with autism have a strong sense of fairness and justice, and may even have an increased tendency towards honesty. #autismawareness #truthtelling

Amazing to see this song & history featured in Rolling Stone - thx Mike Shinoda!
https://youtu.be/pUBKcOZjX6g

#History #edutooter #AsianAmericans #asianmastodon #truthtelling #NeverAgainIsNow

I've reached the half-way point of my new novel, and the plot, themes and characters are coming together nicely.

Now I need to focus on sprinkling joy in between the tougher scenes and themes. #IndigenousJoy, humour, collective love, and #TruthTelling are essential factors of storytelling. Especially when writing back to the colonial archives.

[I'm writing a spec fic-inspired literary novel to honour the Stolen Generations, and highlight the justice that is still needed. Aboriginal children commonly referred to as the Stolen Generations were forcibly removed from their families, to be trained for unpaid domestic servitude and labouring for white families and businesses. A widespread historical injustice and violence; similar to the survivors of Residential Schools on Turtle Island]

#AmWriting #IndigenousWriters #Aboriginal #Indigenous #StolenGenerations
#DomesticServitude
@indigenousauthors

Passionate #truthtelling about #Harry #Meghan and the #British #media, and #blackness https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/09/harry-and-meghan-black-britain-white-netflix

@msfreepress so much #TruthTelling needed around the post colonial world, which is most of it

Finally got around to watching Greg Palast's documentary—"Vigilante: Georgia’s Vote Suppression Hitman"— last night, and it's as good as I'd heard, heartbreakingly good.

The best kind of investigative #journalism and #TruthTelling

Total #MustWatch
#VoterSuppression #Georgia #GregPalast #Vigilante #Documentary

https://www.gregpalast.com/in-vigilante-georgias-vote-suppression-hitman-an-investigative-journalist-accuses-gov-brian-kemp-of-disenfranchising-black-voters/

Indigikitchen!

#indigenous #foodsovereignty #native #cooking #tradition #truthtelling #justice #culture in pre settler-contact americas

https://www.indigikitchen.com/

Young indigenous women and Teen Vogue give a healthy dose of Truthgiving on this settler-colonizer holiday
https://youtu.be/K7jLeBWMA0U #Thanksgiving #truthtelling #Thankstaking

RT @UniMelbPoche@twitter.com

Words of truth at the 2022 Narrm Oration tonight by Professor Eleanor Bourke AM: Truth, Understanding, Transformation - laying the foundations for change. #YoorrookJusticeCommission
#Truthtelling #IndigenousLeadership