Walk WHERE
Did you know that there is a movement underway in Maine to reconcile this region’s past with injustices done to Black and Indigenous peoples? So often, as we continue to learn, the History taught in schools is not the story lived by the people.
Several organizations are partnering to create community events around the state this summer and fall to educate and inspire each of us to learn and revise our history to more accurately represent the experiences of the people inhabiting this region. The aim is to reconcile, to recover and to amend History with a capital “H.”
This Saturday I will be attending and volunteering at the all-day event in Portland. Learn more and register below! I hope to see you there!
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 2024
TIME: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
LOCATION: Payson Park to Maine Audubon
On Saturday, June 22, Atlantic Black Box and The Third Place’s EcoBIPOC Network invite you to join The Walk to Unsettle Portland, a daylong collective practice—at once physical, emotional, creative, and intellectual—in unsettling our understanding of this place by surfacing the suppressed stories of those who walked here before us. Please join us for all or part of the day.
An optional three-mile walk will depart from Payson Park and conclude across the Presumpscot River in Falmouth. The journey will continue along the worn woodland trails and across the rolling meadows of Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm. Walkers will convene in community with others gathering at Maine Audubon to walk the trails and sites displaying recovered stories from the region’s Black and Indigenous history, thanks to contributions from local researchers and organizations. Participants will have opportunities for discussion within separate groups of affinity, allowing all to engage with this history in community and on their own terms. Finally, participants will be invited to come together to process their experiences, converse, and share a meal.
As we gather to break bread, we’ll hear from noted historians, community scholars, artists, and skilled facilitators, who will help us to surface, acknowledge, and redress truths of racialized harm and privilege in the interest of healing and justice. There will be opportunities to practice gathering ‘round world creation, re-imagining reconciliation, and exploring the need for wellness and joy today.
Now is the time for Wabanaki and Black histories in the Dawnland to be amplified in mutual partnership and solidarity. Join the movement and come Walk for Historical and Ecological Recovery to connect our histories for a more informed future.