The Midcoast Indigenous Awareness Group (MIAG) has shared the following list of organizations and causes to support: www.miag-group.org

And, if you would like to support Maine Initiatives grantees working on Wabanaki rights and tribal sovereignty, check out the following organizations:

Abbe Museum

The mission of the Abbe Museum, Maine’s first and only Smithsonian Affiliate is to inspire new learning about the Wabanaki Nations with every visit. With two locations – in downtown Bar Harbor and inside Acadia National Park at Sieur de Monts Spring – the Abbe works closely with the Wabanaki people to share their stories, history, and culture with a broader audience. With a collection of over 70,000 archaeological, historic, and contemporary objects, the Museum’s collections conservation program is recognized nationally as a model for museums. The Abbe also holds the world’s largest and best-documented collection of Maine Native American basketry.

Website: www.abbemuseum.org

Donation Link: www.abbemuseum.org/annualgiving

American Friends Service Committee- Wabanaki Program

Founded in 1917, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action. AFSC’s Wabanaki Program has been working for over 27 years on building Native grassroots movements that seek to address problems in the Native communities of Maine. The program works to uncover, acknowledge, and redress a history of systemic repression, racism, and abuse of Native people. The Wabanaki Program assists youth in realizing their rightful place in their communities and the world through the development of leadership, fostering high self-esteem, and instilling a positive cultural identity among both youth and adults in Maine’s Native communities.

Website: www.afsc.org/office/perry-me

Donation Link: https://secure.afsc.org/onlineactions/yI6CvybTmUmwOsyZenj5vQ2

Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Collective

Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Collective is a network of Indigenous womxn restoring the spiritual foundation of their livelihoods through regenerative food systems. EWRC’s decision-making intentionally aligns with principals of matriation, with an ultimate goal of embodying a cooperative whose non-exploitative sustainable work nurtures the earth, our communities, our whole selves, and our member’s families in traditionally balanced economic roles. This balanced way of life has been violently tested, limited, and stripped away from our womxn throughout 400 years of colonization. By centering indigenous womxn and two-spirits as medicine people, midwives and food producers, we are rematriating our food and economic systems in a way that is more resilient and just.

Website: www.facebook.com/EWRematriation/

Donation Link: www.whyhunger.org/ewrematriation/

Four Directions Development Corporation

In 2001, a small but inspired group of Penobscot tribal members set out upon a path that would lead to the creation of Four Directions Development Corporation (FDDC), one of the nation’s most successful Native American Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI). Structured as a nonprofit revolving loan pool and service provider, FDDC responds to the particular credit and information needs of tribal members, who often face systemic barriers to asset building. Collateral restrictions, strict underwriting standards, and other factors often prohibit tribal members from securing affordable financial capital. FDDC provides, either directly, or in partnership with other Maine agencies, specially designed programs to ensure that tribal members of all four Maine tribes – the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmac and Maliseet – are able to access and use capital resources effectively and efficiently.

Website: www.fourdirectionsmaine.org

Donation Link: www.fourdirectionsmaine.org/donations/

Maine-Wabanaki REACH

REACH believes Wabanaki and Maine people want to change that narrative and be in right relationship with each other and the earth and we have confidence in the transformative power of processes of truth, healing and change. We know that shining a light on the past and within ourselves, families and communities is a critical step in moving Maine toward true racial justice and equity.

Website: www.mainewabanakireach.org

Donation Link: www.mainewabanakireach.org/donate

Nibezun

The Wabanaki Cultural Preservation Coalition (WCPC) is dedicated to preserving and promoting all aspects of Mic Mac, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet, and Abenaki ceremonies, traditions, customs, and language through practice and education. To advance this goal, WCPC is deeply committed to the sacred, unbroken relationship between the People and the ancestral lands and waterways of the Wabanaki Confederacy. Nibezun means “medicine” in the Penobscot language, with its root word ‘nibi’ meaning water – the first medicine. Located on the banks of the Penobscot River, our organization uses culture, connection, and community to heal intergenerational trauma.

Website: www.nibezun.org

Donation Link: www.nibezun.org/donate/

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. They have found that current media representations often offer problematic narratives, rife with mistruths, prejudice, fear mongering and misunderstanding. This lack of understanding is a detriment to the Wabanaki Tribes’ environmental health, cultural survival and sovereignty, and to Tribal-State relations. The goal of Sunlight’s work is to facilitate understanding, analysis and historical context, and to create and organize educational opportunities and events for alliance building and social change.

Website: www.sunlightmediacollective.org

Donation Link: www.sunlightmediacollective.org/index.php/donate

Wabanaki Women’s Coalition

The Wabanaki Women’s Coalition (WWC) works to continues to expand on its ability to affirm Wabanaki cultural values and tribal sovereignty; assist tribal communities in responding to domestic and sexual violence; enhance its resources to provide additional cultural resources at its annual Survivors’ Retreat in order to promote resiliency and healing. The Wabanaki Women’s Coalition’s mission is to increase the capacity of tribal communities to respond to domestic and sexual violence, and influence tribal, national, and regional systems to increase awareness, safety, justice, and healing for all our relations. The Wabanaki Women’s Coalition mission is important in the context of Maine in 2019, especially with the current federal and state legislation to pass the Re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Website: www.wabanakiwomenscoalition.org

Donation Link: www.wabanakiwomenscoalition.org/donate