Now Available: Gedakina Audio Recording!
Now Available as an Audio Recording! Wliniwaskw Wliahki: Good Spirit Good Earth is a book of photos and poems written in Western Abenaki with English translations by Vermont author, Patricia Austin! Wliniwaskw Wliahki is a collaborative project of Patricia Austin, photos and poems, and Gedakina, Inc. for project support, copyright 2023 by Gedakina, Inc, published by Gedakina, Inc., in Essex, Vermont. Wliniwaskw Wliahki brings together photos of the Northeastern woodlands with poetry written in Western Abenaki with English translations. The inspiration for this work arises from the urgent need for humans to develop an understanding and relationship with the land. A way of life that is long overdue in our world today.
Banned Books - Our Perspective
We want all children to learn from these books. Far too often certain states or special interest groups think they know best, and they become the gatekeeper of our stories, at worst banning our books and at best failing to highlight or lift up our books. Their criteria are different from ours. They are entitled to their stories and opinions and likewise we are entitled to ours. We do not want one gatekeeper for our stories.
Thank you from UVM Students
Earlier this fall Judy Dow met with students from UVM’s Place-Based Education program and led them on a memorable walking tour of Burlington’s Old North End. Starting at St Joseph’s Church on Allen Street, Judy led the group of 30 or so students through the streets of the Old North End.
Urine the Garden?
Fertilizing with urine is an ancient practice that has gained some recent attention. Gedakina is working with the Rich Earth Institute on research and education around recycling urine.
A Day with BCL
Judy Dow has been working with Burlington City & Lake Semester for years. Meeting with the students to discuss Burlington, connection to place, and what it means to live in the margins. Take a look at their latest outing!
2023 Retreat & Board meeting
Hard to believe another year has coming and gone… The staff and board had an amazing retreat this year and thankfully the weather was on our side! A sunset cruise, swimming and beach hangs, and of course delicious food with great people!!
NSF announces $120 million in funding to create 4 new Science and Technology Centers
NSF Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS), led by a team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst; Northern Arizona University; University of Maine; University of California, Santa Cruz; University of Washington; Montana State University; Western Washington University; Huliauapaʻa; Alaska Pacific University; New York University; College of Menominee Nation; University of Michigan; Gedakina; and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. CBIKS also includes partnerships with 57 Indigenous communities. The center aims to advance knowledge about environmental change and its effects on food and cultural systems at local and global scales by combining Indigenous knowledge with Western science in effective, ethical and novel ways.
Women’s Braiding Sweetgrass pickle making night!
Braiding Sweetgrass supports grassroots community-based projects inspired and led by women and girls. Project organizers promote self-determination, cultural continuance, and well-being while organizing programs focused on sexual and domestic violence prevention and healing and cultural and social activities of importance to women and girls. Braiding Sweetgrass is a multi-generational mentoring and support system that helps nurture and encourage all women in the community.
Young Women’s beading circle attend Cheer camp!
Gedakina sponsored fourteen Passamaquoddy girls to attend cheerleader camp where they are building community and learning leadership skills as part of our Braiding Sweetgrass program. All of these girls are a part of Gedakina’s teen beading group where they learn traditional skills. Gedakina also purchased an enrichment van to transport local women and youth from our Gedakina Community Center in Princeton Maine to socials, powwows, concerts and many other events - like this cheerleading competition.
MMIW Day 2023
May 5th is the official MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) Day. On this day we wear red. Red is the official color of the #MMIW campaign, but it goes deep and has significant meaning. In many tribes, the color red is known to be the only color that Spirit sees. It is hoped that by wearing red, we can call back the missing spirits of our women and children so we can lay them to rest. A red hand over the mouth has become the symbol of the MMIW movement. It stands for all the missing sisters whose voices are not heard. It stands for the silence of the media and law enforcement in the midst of this crisis. It stands for the oppression and subjugation of Native women who are now rising up to say #NoMoreStolenSisters.
Connecting students with Wabanaki culture in Maine schools
Hard to believe another year has coming and gone… The staff and board had an amazing retreat this year and thankfully the weather was on our side! A sunset cruise, swimming and beach hangs, and of course delicious food with great people!!
2022 One Shelf Project thank you’s
The One Shelf Book Project is a giveaway hosted by Gedakina, an honoring and celebration of Native American wisdom by giving away culturally relevant, historically accurate, and high-quality traditional Native American literature and educational material free to school districts and libraries serving American Indian children. The shelf includes 50+ books for K-12 as well as Teacher Resources, poetry, and more.
Braiding Sweetgrass circle drum making night
Through Gedakina’s Braiding Sweetgrass programs and events Native women and their families enjoy community in a supportive and expressive environment. Teaching and learning each other new skills and passing down traditional knowledge.
Teen beading circle ladies place 3rd in Cheer regionals!
Indian Township Warriors placed Third in the Regional Cheer competition! Seven of these lovely ladies comprise our teen beading circle (a Braiding Sweetgrass group) held weekly at our Princeton, ME location.
Congratulations, Firestarters!
White Bison provides sobriety, recovery, addictions prevention, and wellness/Wellbriety learning resources to the Native American/Alaskan Native community nationwide.
Congratulations to Gedakina staff members Lindsay Desmond, Danielle Desmond, & Sandra Bassett on beginning their White Bison’s Medicine Wheel & 12 Steps training program!
2022 Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts
Judy Dow of Essex is a nationally known activist, basket weaver and teacher of traditional Abenaki culture and native practices for over 35 years. She is the executive director of Gedakina, a multigenerational organization that supports Indigenous youth, women, and families across New England. She has been widely recognized as an expert on Indigenous education and an influential guardian of Abenaki history and culture. Her baskets have been exhibited in museums around the world, including a recent international exhibit in England, Poland, and Romania, traveling to other places worldwide as the tour continues. Dow’s art is helping to inform the anti-eugenics movement, as one of her tapestries, “The Witness Tree,” was recently featured in the article, “From small beginnings: to build an anti-eugenic future,” published in one of the world’s best known medical journals, The Lancet. In 2004, Dow was a recipient of the Governor’s Heritage Award for Outstanding Educator. Of Winooski Abenaki and French-Canadian descent, Dow brings a Native American lens to reading the land, to teaching science and history, and to giving visibility to lost voices and hidden histories.
Braiding Sweetgrass Groups
Our groups had a busy and rewarding year in 2021. Adaptation has been our keyword for the past two years. COVID-19 has led us down many different paths. Our youth and women’s groups have been working on learning and retaining our history and culture, just in a different way. Zoom calls, social distancing, texting, and messaging have become a new way of life for us.
2021 One Shelf Project thank you’s
Every year we seek out culturally responsible and appropriate Native American literature to share with school libraries across New England. Our One Shelf Book Program connects youth to literature they might not otherwise have access to and comes at no cost to the school libraries. We know that representation matters and we want Native American youth to see themselves in a positive light. We also want to offer a window to non-Native students to learn about the world from another perspective. Every thank you we get adds a little fuel to our fire! We are so glad our gifts are welcomed and appreciated in this way.
VPR Public Radio: How some Northeast organizations are trying to return land, decision-making power to people of color
On a windy but warm day earlier this year, Judy Dow walked between rows of corn, beans, squash and sunflowers at Shelburne Farms. A sign explained how the different plants nourish one another.
The purpose of this plot is both to educate visitors, and to produce seeds to share with Indigenous gardens across New England.
“So eat the vegetable, and then save the seed, 'cause what we want is the seed,” Judy said.
Vermont Visionaries: Meet Judy Dow, Indigenous Scholar and Educator
A few years ago, educator Judy Dow contemplated retiring. She'd been an educator for more than three decades, working at Essex Elementary School for 15 years and later teaching at the Chittenden Country Correctional Facility. She'd received the Governor's Award for Outstanding Vermont Educator in 2004.
Instead, Dow, a scholar of French Canadian and Indigenous descent, chose a different path: She became the executive director of Gedakina, a multigenerational organization that supports Indigenous youth, women and families across New England. Gedakina helps reclaim and preserve cultural traditions, such as gardening, basketry and beading.