On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, it is not only important to honor the indigenous people of our community and beyond, but to also honor the land taken from these people that we continue to walk on, live on, and build on.

University of Southern Maine (USM) opened the May 2021 commencement ceremony with a Land Acknowledgement. Executive Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Jeannine Diddle Uzzi, said in her opening statement, “… we pause to acknowledge the land and water that the University of Southern Maine’s campuses occupy, as well as the ancestral and contemporary peoples indigenous to these places in the Dawnland … We also acknowledge the uncomfortable truths of settler colonialism … Harm from the physical and cultural genocide of Native people here and throughout the land we now call Maine continues and is felt by members of the Wabanaki confederacy who live here today, including our own Wabanaki students, staff, and faculty”.

During the opening breakfast for the start of the 2021 – 2022 academic year this past August, President Glenn Cummings repeated some of the points from above, also stating, “… we have been blessed to have a land recognition committee in the last year take a look at what it would mean to acknowledge that this land is not ours … it gives us a chance for us to see what it is that we have to look at in ourselves”.

As a community of predominantly white people, it can be easy to overlook parts of history that we may feel have nothing to do with us. The truth is, all of this history has to do with us and our past actions.

We cannot take back or reverse the forced control of the land of indigenous people, but it is never too late to acknowledge that history, become educated of that history, and start acting on that history in order to create a community of better understanding, acceptance, and unity.

These Land Acknowledgements are a big first step toward honoring the indigenous land, but as Uzzi and Cummings stated earlier this year, “We all have work to do.”

Whether you are traveling or having a “stay-cation” during our long holiday weekend, let’s not forget the history and uncomfortable truths of the land we are standing on, walking on, and driving on. Let’s not forget the people who are the true owners of this land.

Start having those uncomfortable conversations so that we may truly understand our indigenous community. Let’s keep working towards a better, more unified community and stop ignoring what has needed to be acknowledged for hundreds of years.

Let’s all take a moment out of our day to honor the Abenaki, Wabanaki, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy peoples of our beloved Maine community.

An apology can never, and will never, be enough to right the wrongs of our history, but it can be a good conversation starter with our new friends, old friends, classmates, co-workers, and neighbors.