UMF Sits on Wabanaki Land
Wabanaki Confederacy (Anglicised Names); map by Wikipedia User: Grug-Jack
October 2, 2023
Tyler Wright, Contributing Writer
With Indigenous People’s Day coming up it’s important for the campus to take a look at how UMF does its part of upholding the promises that were made just two years ago in the “Indigenous Land and Water Acknowledgement”. In the “Indigenous Land and Water Acknowledgement”; announced on Oct.13, 2021, UMF pledges to honor the Abenaki people who originally owned the land the university now rests on.
“We pledge to honor them (The Abenaki and other tribes that make up the Wabanaki Confederation) by educating ourselves about their history and current struggles and accepting our responsibility to correct ongoing injustices”.
Speaking with a current Native American student of Farmington whose tribe is a part of the Wabanaki Confederacy gives important insights into how the campus is upholding this promise, from both a Native and student perspective: Sophia Fahnley began by saying she felt that UMF was trying to ensure that students and faculty knew the campus was on Native land, but that they weren’t giving it their all. Fahnley also stated she attended the University of Machias last year and they made numerous efforts to make sure that students understood what that meant, from Wabanaki language classes and Anthropology classes that cover the Native side of American history.
“The signs at Machias actually say the things in the Wabanaki language…It was so cool when they were putting in those signs…Because I only know a small amount of Mi’kmaq,” Fahnley said. “You don’t always think of it when you’re walking through Farmington, that you’re on somebody else's land, not on American land... It would be so cool if there was a sign that said, “Hey you’re on Wabanaki land.”
When asked if there were any times she noticed that the school recognized that it rests on Native American lands she noted that it was mentioned sparingly.
“I heard it a couple of times during orientation but it was very much like “This is UMF we’re on Native land and this is our library and it’s beautiful…Oh, we’ll get back to that (being on Native land) later, definitely.”
During the normal parts of the school year, there’s not much information to be found about how UMF rests on historically native lands but with the upcoming Indigenous People’s Day UMF has multiple events about Native American culture such as a storytelling event on Oct. 1., a film about the Wabanaki people’s relationship with the Penobscot river on Tuesday, Oct.3., as well as other events about native culture. Most importantly during the week leading up to Indigenous People’s Day, there’s a panel discussion/conversation UMF is holding in the Olsen Student Center at 6:30 p.m. on Oct.5. that is all about promoting Indigenous allyship and the latest Indigenous political struggles.
Additionally, with new faculty focused on promoting different cultures such as Yetunde O. Ajao and her efforts to restore the multicultural club the future is looking bright, but for now, as Fahnley puts it, “It’s one of those things where it’s like, it’s public knowledge but you don’t want anyone to know about it, so you kind of hide it but not enough so that it looks like you’re trying to hide it.”
