The Gatherings: Reimagining Indigenous-Settler Relations (University of Toronto Press, 2021), written by fourteen Wabanaki and non-Native co-authors, tells the story of a series of cross-cultural meetings. From 1987 to 1993, Shirley Hager a series of weekend-long meetings between Indigenous and non-Native individuals throughout the Gulf of Maine bioregion, in Wabanaki territory. They sought to explore some of the most pressing questions at the heart of Truth and Healing efforts in the United States and Canada. In this book, she and her co-authors share the lessons they learned, and continue to learn, through their ongoing relationships. The Gatherings shows how indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can come together to create meaningful and lasting relationships. In this event, two of the co-authors will share their experiences in these meetings as well as stories about the book’s creation.

Shirley N. Hager is a retired associate professor with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Currently, she serves with the Friends (Quaker) Committee on Maine Public Policy and chairs its Committee on Tribal-State Relations.

T. Dana Mitchell is a Panawahpskek/Penobscot from the Bear Clan. His people carry the name of the river they live on, the Penobscot, which runs through central and eastern Maine. As Dana describes it, the river is their highway, their lifeline, and their bloodline. Dana grew up on Panawahpskek with thirteen siblings, descendants of a long line of tribal leaders.

For Zoom links, please email elewis@rocklandmaine.gov.