On Monday, October 12, we join communities across Maine in honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day. UMA’s campuses and centers sit within the homelands of the Wabanaki Nations of Maine: the Penobscot Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, and the Mi’kmaq Nation. For thousands of years, these nations have cared for this land, and through centuries of displacement and broken promises, they have endured. Today they continue to lead, to teach, and to shape the future of Maine.
This day asks more of us than remembrance. It asks us to listen to Wabanaki voices in the present, to learn the histories that too often go untold, and to examine how respect shows up in our everyday work. As a university, we carry a particular responsibility. We have the opportunity to make room for Indigenous perspectives and knowledge systems in our classrooms, our scholarship, and our partnerships. Our community is stronger when we uphold fairness, cultivate belonging, and recognize what we owe to one another.
We invite every member of the UMA community to do one thing this year that moves you beyond observance and toward understanding.
- Learn something you didn’t know. Read a book by a Wabanaki or Native author, or watch one of the films below. Then ask yourself why it wasn’t part of your education before.
- Show up. Attend an event, visit a museum, or support a Native-led organization or artist.
- Bring it into your work. Consider how Indigenous perspectives could inform a course, a project, a conversation with a student, or the way your team serves the public.
- Keep going. Let October 12 be a starting point, not a single date on the calendar.
Respect and reconciliation are built through many small, sustained acts. When we carry the lessons of this day into how we teach, collaborate, and serve, we help build a more just and thoughtful community, here at UMA and across Maine.
Learn, Listen, and Take Part
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is one moment in an ongoing journey of learning and respect. We invite you to explore the following resources as ways to listen, learn, and take meaningful steps toward understanding and solidarity.
Local Events
- Join the Wabanaki Alliance in Augusta for an Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration in Capitol Park on 10/12.
- On Sunday, 10/11, the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine is hosting their first Indigenous People’s Day Film Festival. It will be held at the Unitarian-Universalist Church in Bangor, 120 Park Street, from 1:30 PM to 7:30 PM. There is no cost, but donations will be accepted.
- Join the Abbe Museum in downtown Bar Harbor on 10/12 for a special day of programming centered on the theme “Water is Life.”
- Visit the Portland Museum of Art on 10/12 for the Indigenous Peoples’ Day Open House – Free admission for all!
Learning Resources
- Explore Native American reading recommendations from FirstNations.org, a Native-led list spanning history, culture, fiction, poetry, and youth literature, with staff picks highlighted as a good place to start.
- Listen to Beyond the Claims: Stories from the Land and the Heart, a Wabanaki REACH oral history project in which members of the Wabanaki Nations share lived experiences of the Maine Indian Land Claims and the 1980 settlement.
- Listen to “Sea Run,” an audiobook from the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, narrated by Wabanaki citizens, on the history and future of sea-run fisheries in Maine’s rivers.
- To learn more about and contribute to the spirit of the day, check out the 2022 Native-led non-profit Wabanaki Reach’s truth telling initiative that addresses Maine Indian land claims through oral history.
- Watch this webinar on Indigenous Voices in the Outdoors by Rethink Outside™ and the First Nations Development Institute.
- Explore the documentary film Voices from the Barrens, Native People, Blueberries and Sovereignty and request a screening.
Recommended Videos from the Sunlight Media Collective
The Sunlight Media Collective is an organization of Indigenous and non-Indigenous media makers and activists, including Wabanaki tribal members, working to document and present stories affecting Wabanaki people and highlighting Wabanaki perspectives, with a particular emphasis on the intersection between environmental issues and tribal rights.
The Penobscot: Ancestral River, Contested Territory (45 min)
The Penobscot: Ancestral River, Contested Territory traverses the landscape of deal-making and deal-breaking which has historically defined tribal-state relations in Maine. Spanning from the 1700’s to the present-day legal battle being played out in Penobscot Nation v. Mills, the film illustrates the history of Penobscots’ tenacious fight to retain their territory and their inherent, treaty-reserved sustenance fishing rights for future generations. The Penobscot: Ancestral River, Contested Territory features the Penobscot people’s traditional, centuries-long stewardship to ensure a healthy ecosystem for all of Maine. It tells the urgent, inspiring story of a struggle for justice and cultural survival in the face of an astonishingly open abuse of state power.
The Saga Continues (7 min)
The Saga Continues is an August 2021 update to the Penobscot River case written by Maria Girouard (Penobscot Nation), a historian with a particular interest and expertise in Maine Indian Land Claims.