The Walk to Unsettle Portland
Saturday, June 22, 2024
The lands and waters that make up the place long known as Machigonne, now called Portland, have been home to Indigenous people for over 12,000 years. With the arrival of the first European vessels on these shores came people of African heritage, bringing with them their varied cultural practices, skills, and knowledge. Although Wabanaki and Black relationships to this land have differed greatly, both populations survived attempted genocide and enslavement through resistance and resilience. Both peoples contributed to defining the nature and character of this place in the face of colonialism and generations of oppression. But skewed settler narratives and white mainstream scholarship have worked to suppress these truths, which today remain largely absent from the commemorative landscape and from collective consciousness. It is only in confronting place ignorance that we can hope to cultivate inclusive and informed communities today, where all people can enjoy a deep sense of belonging.
What injustices have been perpetrated in this corner of the Dawnland?
Whose unacknowledged labor helped to build these stately houses and stone walls?
What “goods” were transported along this river, and at what cost?
Whose names remain inscribed on the landscape?
How do the forces set in motion by the wide-scale theft of land and labor continue to reverberate in our communities today?
It is our intention to use this first walk as an opportunity to begin collaboratively designing the ways we wish to learn, grow, and engage with issues of public memory and placemaking in view of building action and movement toward true historical and ecological recovery.
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 in collaboration with Momentum Conservation and Maine Audubon 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.
Contributors include:
The Third Place
Atlantic Black Box
The EcoBIPOC Network
Momentum Conservation
Maine Audubon
The Prince Project
Victoria Mansion
Osher Map Library
Place Justice Initiative
Portland Public Schools
Maine Historical Society
For questions, email info@atlanticblackbox.com
or call (207) 200-7235
The Third Place is a cross-sector network that connects Maine’s Black professionals, students, and entrepreneurs to social, professional, and economic opportunities. We do this through in-person events, online programs, and a virtual community platform. These programs and platforms serve as a critical resource in creating and sustaining Maine’s Black cultural infrastructure. Our network is designed to create a dynamic ecosystem that connects Black Mainers to other communities of color, local businesses and institutions, and cities/towns across the state. The Third Place brings together individuals, emerging initiatives, and organizations who share a common goal- ensuring that Maine is “The Way Life Should Be” for ALL people.
Bob Greene
Maya Tihtiyas Attean
Dr. Kate McMahon
James E. Francis, Sr.
Seth Goldstein
Ashley Page
Mihku Paul
Samuel James
Mouhamadou Diagne
and more…
AMENDED Schedule:
10:30 am Gather at Gilsland Farm Maine Audubon Center under the outdoor Pavillion. Music by Samuel James. Opening remarks and contributions by Adilah Muhammad, Mouhamadou Diagne, Penthea Burns, Devon Kelley-Yurdin, estephanie guaregua maroáll, and Erika Arthur.
11:15 - 12:00 Walk the Western Meadow, take in ephemeral historical signs, visit response stations
12:00 pm Community meal & processing, visit response stations
1:00 pm Listening & learning. Hear from community scholars, artists, historians, and activists, including Bob Greene, Kate McMahon, Ashley Page, Andy Beahm, Mihku Paul, and Seth Goldstein.
2:30 pm Community conversation & closing.
Atlantic Black Box is committed to expanding the field of historical recovery. We empower communities throughout the Northeast to research and reckon with the region’s active role in colonization and slavery while recentering the stories of its historically marginalized groups. Burying New England’s history of racial violence and oppression was the work of many hands. At Atlantic Black Box, we believe it will take just as many hands to uncover the truth and to build a culture of repair. Our organization provides communities with the tools, resources, and support needed to recover and make sense of suppressed history through public programming, research assistance, community dialogue, place-based education, artistic expression, and advocacy.
Under the umbrella of The Third Place, the EcoBIPOC Network exists to support individuals in BIPOC communities and organizations who are passionate about outdoor relationships, access, equity, and gathering. Designed to foster a growing community of BIPOC outdoor enthusiasts, activists, naturalists, and stewards, the platform encourages collaboration through impact planning, exchange, and collective action.
In service of connection to the land and justice for people, Momentum Conservation advances the growth edge of the modern conservation movement. We strengthen conservation organizations through technical assistance, shared resources, and networking. We bind organizations together for greater impact. We believe that modern conservation is rooted in colonialism and white supremacy, which erase the many ways to relate to nature while systematically preventing access to and dispossessing Indigenous, Black and communities of color of land. Power needs to be shifted in conservation because it is exclusive, primarily of and for the white dominant culture without reflecting or attending to the needs of people who make up communities, especially those of marginalized identities.
Maine Audubon works to conserve Maine wildlife and wildlife habitat by engaging people in education, conservation, and action. This is your wildlife community.