Role: Preditor
Established in 1996, Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness (WPHW) is a not-for-profit organization serving Wabanaki community members living on and off-reservations across the state of Maine, including four federally recognized tribes located in five communities: the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point, and the Penobscot Nation. It provides culturally based and evidence-based programs and services that improve the health and wellness of Wabanaki communities in Maine whilst also honouring Wabanaki cultural knowledge, cultivating innovation, and fostering collaboration.
Wabanaki people have cared for Wabanaki territory (what is now called the State of Maine) for thousands of years. Contact, genocide, and direct attempts to destroy Wabanaki people have had devastating impacts, however. For far too long, Wabanaki people have not had the necessary resources, services, or programs to address the impacts these direct attempts have created. WPHW works to address these impacts through love and creating the necessary supports to walk alongside any person who seeks healing.
Wabanaki traditions, language, and culture guide their approach, describing how they live in harmony with each other and the land that is collectively shared by everyone. These services include cultural gatherings and events, mental health and substance use prevention and treatment, data gathering, and more.
The Wabanaki people have survived colonization, disease, warfare, attempted genocide, their children being stolen by the government in the interest of assimilation, and the lasting effects of centuries of racism and trauma. They grieve what they have lost, but they also celebrate what they have maintained. The Wabanaki continue to face challenges today, but they have responded to these, as they had to others throughout their history, with ideas and methods that enable them to survive and be seen. The WPHW continues this venerable tradition.