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Summer 2001 Committee wins United Thank Offering grant for "Invisibles" video...see article The Mission |
The Committee on Indian
Relations
of the Diocese of Maine
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Summer 2001 Committee wins United Thank Offering grant for "Invisibles" video...see article The Mission |
Anglo Episcopalians and Indians working together, the Committee on Indian Relations seeks to heal some of the wounds left by 500 years of cultural assault upon Indian people in North America.
The task is simple, yet complex. We seek to help our Episcopal community address and repent of our own sin of racism. We recognize and accept the cultural integrity of the tribes of Maine as the indigenous people of Maine. We work to break down stereotypes and free ourselves to help all races to know and honor each other in depth and fullness, with openness of mind and heart and equality of dignity as our starting points. Yet with all the assumptions and exploitation and/or neglect that have attended our Anglo-Indian relationships over the last five centuries, we do not even know what we must undo before we can begin the great work of reconciliation to which we are called.
So the Committee has adopted a "spirit of self-restraint," as Evelyn Eaton called or in her book on her own spiritual apprenticeship with Indians, I Send a Voice. The greatest acts of reconciliation from our side may be not to do things but simply to be attentively supportive of Indian choices. Sometimes this involves simply spending time in conversation. Sometimes it calls for a more proactive gesture of support for Indian concerns, when Indians invite the Committee to advocate with and for them.
CIR wins UTO grant for "Invisible" by the Rev. Holly Lyman AntoliniNative Americans the first residents of Maine -- form a substantial racial minority in Maine. The Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, MicMac, and Maliseet tribes make up the Wabanaki people: the People of the Dawn. The Native people have had more than 400 years of contact with Whites, during which time they have had most of their lands and then their culture taken from them. Many of their present challenges are the result of white racism. Yet to most of the White community in the state, the tribes are invisible. When asked about their relations with nearby Maine Indians, most White persons say they have none. And, they add, they know of no way to meet these neighbors.
This invisibility does not stop at the borders of Maine. Native American experience of racism often goes unrecognized even in conscientiously constructed anti-racism curricula, which tend to focus on African-American, Asian and Hispanic experiences of racism first and foremost. Native Americans are "invisible" even to many working to overcome racism! There is a serious lack of video resources on the Indian experience of racism available, and Indians are, in general, highly reluctant to share such experiences frankly and openly with White people, owing to a long and painful history of belittlement. After much careful trust-building, the Wabanaki tribes of Maine together with the Committee on Indian Relations (CIR) are in a uniquely advantageous position to make such testimony from Native Americans available to Whites working to overcome racism, through the medium of film.
"Invisible" will reveal some of the history of Indian-white relations in Maine. Told from the Native peoples' point of view, it will use their voices to tell individual stories. These persons will talk about what has happened to them and what they see as ways out of this racial disparity. In this way, the film will examine why the Wabanakis are so invisible to the White community. It will raise the question of racism and its role in delivering Maine Indians to their present circumstances. It will also form a starting point for discussion among its White audiences about what they can do to increase and deepen their own interactions and interconnections with Indian communities.
"Invisible" will rely on strong participation by Maine Indians both behind the camera and in front of it. Wabanaki consultants and interviewees have already been actively involved in the development of the prospectus; they will shape the content and style of the film, as well as work on shooting it. Native American youth apprentices will be trained during the filming so that they will be able to use their filmmaking skills to continue to serve their tribes after the projectıs completion. The film will rely on many individual Wabanakis throughout Maine to tell their stories and to offer up their ideas for approaches to improving this alarming state of relations between the White and Indian communities.
Filmmakers Westphal and Hansen have worked closely with Maine tribes in the production of a number of films. These have included "Wabanaki," a film on Wabanaki spirituality that was produced collaboratively with the tribes and was sponsored in part by CIR, and "Penobscot: the People and Their River," which the filmmakers produced under the auspices of the Penobscot Indian Nation, with Native American apprentices participating. The trust the two filmmakers have gained in this way offers a unique opportunity to record the open and frank testimony of Indians to their experience of racism.
The film "Invisible" will be distributed to all the Episcopal congregations in the State of Maine as part of a program within congregations using the Episcopal Churchıs curriculum "The National Dialogues on Anti-Racism." The film will stimulate discussion within these congregations about their relations with Indian communities, as an opening to dialogue directly with these Indian communities. Beyond this, we will make the film available to the national Episcopal Church as part of its anti-racism curriculum and for similar programs in Anglican and other denominationsı congregations in the U.S. and Canada. The film will be designed to be useful in anti-racism training in secular settings such as schools and government offices as well. Furthermore, Maine Public Television has expressed an interest in showing this film throughout Maine, and after doing so would make it available to the national PBS system.
Of the $78,000.00 needed to complete the "Invisible" project, CIR has already raised approximately $42,000 from a variety of sources, including $1,430 contributed by a number of Episcopal congregations in Maine. The UTO grant brings the total well past the halfway mark. Filming cannot begin, however, until the full amount is in hand.
Racism has always been the background to the issues addressed by our Committee. Recently, however, this concern was sharpened when our Chair, the Rev. Roger Smith, was also Chair of a Task Force on Tribal State Relations for the State Legislature in Maine, whose report stated, "Racism is experienced by the Wabanaki, but is not generally recognized by the majority society. Racism is part of the context of tribal-state relations." The report said further, "The Task Force urges the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission not to skirt the issue of racism in its deliberations. It also urges churches and other organization to support prejudice reduction workshop for individuals involved in Indian/non-Indian relationships."
Responding to this challenge, we have discovered that there are no anti-racism materials focused specifically on Indians. In collaboration with the five Wabanaki tribes, we are developing a project to produce a documentary film that could be used as a resource in anti-racism workshops using curricular materials on anti-racism designed by the Episcopal Church. Our initial focus is on Episcopal congregations in Maine, but the film will be designed for use in any anti-racism curriculum, whether in other churches or in secular settings.
In the spirit of the Committee's Mission, this project will utilize the skills of a Wabanaki film director working together with David Westphal, an Anglo film producer and member of the Committee who has produced a number of films in cooperation with the Wabanaki tribes in recent years and is held in high regard by them. The film crew will also train a number of young Wabanaki film interns in the art of film-making. The film will focus on the experience of racism from the Indian perspective. Those the speakers featured in the film will be entirely from Maine, their experience will undoubtedly touch the experience of Indian people throughout the country and be useful in many venues throughout the United States.
Moving Beyond the Columbus Quincentenary
The 500th anniversary of the landing of Columbus in the Western Hemisphere invited us to honor the efforts Native Americans have made to endure and to contribute to this society in the face of hostility, romanticizing and misunderstanding.
In May 1991, the Episcopal Church in Maine resolved to do two things:
1) to commend "to all its members and congregations active efforts to get to know the Native American people of Maine; to learn about their histories, cultures, values and yearnings, and to join with them as we all share in the ministry of reaching to all people of Maine in the name of Christ;"
2) to establish a committee "to assist in this effort…and to work with other church bodies to help us move beyond the 1991 Commemoration… to present and future sharing and action."
The Committee on Indian Relations is the Episcopal Diocese of Maine's continuing effort to build community with Indian people in this state. It is made up of dedicated lay and ordained people from the Diocese and Indian people from some of the five tribes of the Wabanaki, the People of the Dawn, in Maine -- the Abenaki, Mic Mac, Maliseet, Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy.
Since the passage of the founding resolution, the Committee on Indian Relations has in various ways entered into conversation with the tribes in Maine, supporting Indian efforts to address such issues as their environmental concerns over dioxin in the Penobscot River and the impact of dam construction on salmon runs, procurement of a place in Baxter State Park for Indian ceremonies at their sacred mountain, and the elimination of the term "squaw" from place names in Maine. We were also instrumental, together with the Maine Tribal-State Commission, in producing and widely distributing a film on Wabanaki spirituality featuring the perspectives of the Wabanaki themselves.
Wabanaki Symbol: The Double Curve
| The background of this page features the Wabanaki "double curve" design with multi-valent symbolism: it can mean "awareness of the feelings of others," "awareness of lifestyles, especially differences," and "synthesizer of truths and knowledge." We've also chosen the colors yellow and black. Yellow symbolizes the Wabanaki growth and a willingness to learn; black symbolizes our need to take in all ideas and experiences because this will help us in gaining wisdom. Finally, we have combined the cross and full-rooted spruce tree from the seal of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine to symbolize our concern for understanding and reconciliation between Episcopalians and Native Americans in Maine. |
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Chair: Roger
Smith |
Carroll B. Knowlton |
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