Putting Onion Foundation Values Into Action: Reflections on the First Light Learning Journey Course

Just a few months into my tenure as the executive director of the Onion Foundation, I was fortunate enough to participate in a week-long First Light Learning Journey course, an educational program under the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship’s direction. In the course, non-native facilitators work with non-native, land-oriented organizations to recenter Wabanaki voices and experiences and restore Indigenous presence on Wabanaki land.

The course offered participants from land trusts and foundations across the state an opportunity to reconsider land conservation — an effort to which we’re all deeply committed — within the context of Wabanaki history and culture. Because the Onion Foundation, at the time, directly supported half of the more than 80 land trusts in the state at that time, the workshop was and continues to be critical to our work.

Facilitators started the course by discussing the importance of the land to Wabanaki culture and to the community’s spiritual, physical, and economic well-being, and it quickly became evident that the course would center social justice — and would require the personal and professional self-reflection necessary for honest and full participation.

The Long-Walked Quest for Sovereignty

Like the rest of North America, Maine has historically been the home of Indigenous groups, primarily the Maliseet Indians, the Mi'kmaq Nation, the Passamaquoddy at Sipayik, the Passamaquoddy at Motahkomikuk, and the Penobscot Nation, collectively known as the Wabanaki or the “People of the Dawnland.” But Maine is the only state in the U.S. that treats Indigenous groups within its boundaries as municipalities, denying their status as sovereign nations.

Recent state legislation has recognized some limited tribal rights, including:

• The authority to prosecute domestic violence against non-tribal members in tribal courts

• The protection of water quality in culturally important tribal waters

• The exclusive rights to operate online sports wagering

• The right of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik to regulate its own drinking water and work directly with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, rather than the state

But these narrowly delineated rights don’t fundamentally alter the federal Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980, which the Wabanaki Nations and many others now view as having the unexpected and unwanted effect of taking away the groups’ sovereignty. In 1980, the Wabanaki Nations claimed 12 million acres — or nearly two-thirds of Maine — as their own. The Settlement Act gave them $81.5 million in reparations for the land taken in exchange for the Wabanaki tribes dropping claims to additional land.

Delving Into Wabanaki History

Despite a growing movement that’s driving bipartisan legislative momentum to comprehensively reform the Settlement Act, the Wabanaki Nations remain the only federally recognized group without tribal sovereignty.

By educating non-native people about the history of the Wabanaki Nations, the impact of colonialism on land access, and the Wabanaki peoples’ goals, First Light is working to restore Indigenous decision-making authority and recenter Wabanaki access to private land.

During the course, I was asked to explore fundamental questions that are difficult, but critically important, for conservation organizations to address. Whose land are our organizations conserving? What are the ethical considerations that should guide our conservation policies and practices, given the violence through which Wabanaki land was taken and the unequal bargaining power that’s existed ever since? What actions are legitimate?

Finding — and Addressing — the Root Cause

These existential questions brought me into familiar philanthropic territory. For years, I’ve focused on social justice and human rights issues at various philanthropies. Whether the issue was the disproportionate incarceration of Black men, inadequate treatment for substance use disorder, or discriminatory school suspension policies, any effective philanthropic response required me to first understand the root cause of the problem — and be willing to address it head on.

The Onion Foundation’s commitment to helping Maine residents enjoy, learn about, and protect the environment similarly poses social justice questions. To support the foundation’s efforts, I must have a strong understanding of the Wabanaki Nations’ relationship to the land and the local forces that have curtailed that relationship.

The First Light course helped me better understand this context through a carefully curated curriculum. Its sessions included:

• The history of the Wabanaki Nations in Maine

• Indigenous cultural traditions and their ongoing presence throughout the state

• Discrimination and human rights violations that Wabanaki individuals and communities face

• The impact of initiatives such as the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which comprehensively investigated the devastating effects of Wabanaki children’s coerced attendance at residential schools and placement in foster care

• Rematriation efforts that conservation organizations and others could support

The course was a true lesson in relearning events and their consequences, unearthing deep-seated assumptions, interrogating what it means to be an ally, and identifying root causes of the problems the Wabanaki Nations now face — an exercise that can often be challenging.

Doing so requires a commitment to the serious study of history, of the pernicious and beneficial social, economic, and political dynamics that have shaped particular places and the communities within them.

This work requires awareness of our internalized assumptions and the gaps in our knowledge and experience. We must be open to questioning long-held beliefs, to learning and relearning, and to adopting a new framework for understanding current conditions. It’s a process that can reveal one’s own roles in perpetuating injustice — as a result of willful ignorance, discrimination, or structural forces that create mainstream narratives that uphold power imbalances.

But when we’re willing to truly listen to those most impacted by injustice and open ourselves up to learning, we can better identify the actions — the changes in policies, practices, and beliefs — that can reduce harm, promote healing, and redistribute power.

Aligning Values, Intentions, and Actions

Learning is central to our work at the Onion Foundation. In fact, learning and creativity constitute one of our four value clusters: We believe that knowledge has the power to effect positive change, so we seek out and share new and unconventional ideas and take risks to improve.

It’s this belief — as well as the value we place on leveraging our resources to reduce systemic inequities so all people in Maine can fully realize their potential — that first drew us to First Light’s week-long and year-long courses and various community conversations. It’s also what drives our commitment to achieving regional systemic change.

What impact has our First Light journey had on the foundation? So far, it’s helped us identify our own blind spots and inaction, a process we’ve used to inform our statement of intention. That statement — a living document — sets forth our intentions to:

• Continue learning about Wabanaki history, culture, and priority needs, recognizing that priorities may vary across specific groups

• Work collectively through First Light to learn about and take steps to expand the Wabanaki Nations' access to land and cultural resources

• Use our grantmaking and other programs to increase awareness of policies and practices that have separated Wabanaki people from the land and cultural resources or that could strengthen Wabanaki people’s role in stewarding land and water

• Help create a conservation movement that includes and reflects Indigenous expertise and perspectives, values transparency, and holds itself accountable to adopting practices and policies that advance the Wabanaki Nations' equitable access to resources, power, and land

• Support programs that build understanding of the Wabanaki community’s needs, incorporate Wabanaki perspectives, and welcome the participation of the Wabanaki Nations people

• Share approaches and programs that successfully improve Wabanaki people’s access to land or that benefit from Wabanaki people’s experience, expertise, and culture

• Embrace initiatives and public policies that explicitly commit to addressing the injustice experienced by the Wabanaki Nations people

To support these goals, we’ve taken a number of concrete actions in recent years, such as supporting the First Light program and contributing to Wolankeyutomone kisi apaciyewik — or, “Let us take good care of what is returned" — the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship’s newly established foundation. Through First Light and other grants, we provide land trusts the opportunity to consider their own responsibilities, policies, and practices. We respond positively to equitable outdoor access programs and nature learning initiatives that discuss Wabanaki beliefs and practices and that embrace “two-eyed seeing.”

Our work extends beyond land access and nature learning to include the support of arts programs that promote Wabanaki Nations artists and preserve their cultural traditions. We also embrace opportunities to help Indigenous communities in Maine reconnect to the land and each other so they can freely continue these cultural practices. Supporting Maine’s rich arts culture, protecting the environment, and mitigating the impact of climate change can’t fully happen without the Wabanaki community’s expertise and leadership — which is why we stand alongside them.

Our Commitment to the Road Ahead

As the First Light course emphasizes, the path to equity and land reclamation is a journey. As we collectively move forward, we’ll continue to participate in First Light’s courses and community conversations, strengthening our relationships with its alliance of practitioners. And we’ll continue to learn from our grantees and the growing body of written resources on Wabanaki Nations history, beliefs, and sovereignty.

We all stand to benefit from Wabanaki knowledge systems and the Wabanaki community’s full expression of their cultures and identities. Recognizing these contributions is critical, but it’s non-native people’s responsibility to change our beliefs, policies, and practices. This is a matter of social justice: Wabanaki Nations people have faced deliberate, systemic discrimination, which greatly diminished their population and undercut their connection to the land.

At the Onion Foundation, we’re committed to relearning history, centering Wabanaki self-determination as we undertake our philanthropic work, and returning resources and decision-making to the Wabanaki Nations. This is a journey, and it’s important that we’re on it.