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.
Essex Westford School District approves equity policy
After months of work, the Essex Westford School Board Tuesday voted to adopt a much-discussed equity policy on a vote of 8-1.
The equity policy has been in the works since September and has had hundreds of community members weigh in on what they would like to see. The policy faced some backlash with some people saying it was excluding white children. District officials, however, strongly rejected that classification, saying the policy was intended to be beneficial to all students and ensure opportunity for everyone. The broad majority of residents who spoke during meetings were also in support of the policy.
“I want my children and all students to attend the best public schools they can. I believe this policy will improve outcomes for all students in the district,” said Paul Yoon, an EWSD parent.
“As a mom of three kids in the school district, one which has a disability, I have a vested interest in helping him achieve his best potential in life and I believe all students deserve that,” said Megan Humphries, another EWSD parent.