Mihku Paul (born 1958) is a First Nations poet, visual artist, storyteller, and activist. She was born into the Maliseet Nation and she is a member of Kingsclear First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada. Mihku Paul currently resides in Portland, Maine [1] where she teaches creative writing at the Maine Women Writers Collection at the University of New England. [2]
Mihku Paul's first chapbook, 20th Century PowWow Playland, was published by Bowman Books in Greenfield, New York in 2012. The poems describe Maliseet homeland, also known as Wolastoqiyik, and Paul's own thoughts on the rights and continuation of indigenous people in the northeast. This poem, as her most popular, is known for giving a voice to the African American community and the discrimination they face, although this was not her main goal of these poems. Some of her more popular poems include The Water Road, Mother Tongue, and Genocide and Me.
A number of poems also address Paul's dissatisfaction with the education she received in the Maine public school system. One of her most famous works would be Jefferson Street School also in 20th Century PowWow Playland. In this piece, Paul speaks as a "kindergarten captive" who is forced to memorize and recite the "invader's language" and the biased culture that was present. [2]
Mihku Paul has also been published in magazines including Cabildo Quarterly Online. [3]
Paul has recently been credited with writing a chapter in Transforming Our Practices which is a teach pedagogy text that focuses on Indigenous educational paradigms. [4]
Mihku Paul combines her poetry with visual art, creating works in pen and ink, watercolor, gouache, and mixed media collage. Although she never had any formal education in the visual arts field, she looks to support her identity through her artistic values. Paul's first multi-media exhibit was a 2010 installation at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine, entitled "Look Twice: The Waponahki in Image & Verse.” The poems that are published in the anthology Dawnland Voices were paired with photographs and her own drawings. [5] She looked to use this piece as a way to redirect the viewers objective thoughts on Native American life and history. [6] Her other pieces, which include medicine wheel paintings have been auctioned off for fundraising to support arts in the schools and by the Sierra Club to support local and regional projects. [7]
During her experience within the educational system off of her Maliseet reservation, she dealt with racism and discrimination. Paul looked to enhance the experience within education with the inclusion of Native Americans as people as well as their history. [2] In Portland, Maine, she looked to work with the educational system and schools to spread the learning and understanding of Native Americans through storytelling and curriculum enhancements. She often speaks on issues regarding her experiences at different schools and events. Paul spoke at an event hosted by the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Maine Wabanaki REACH, Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission, and United to End Genocide. This event was called "Genocide & Maine: Shining the Light of Truth" and focused on making invisible genocide visible, make what is silenced about genocide heard, and motivate the development of awareness and action to face the challenges that affect the people of Maine. [8]
The Abenaki are Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predominantly spoken in Maine, while the Western Abenaki language was spoken in Quebec, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
The Penobscot are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec.
The Passamaquoddy are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America. Their traditional homeland, Peskotomuhkatikuk, straddles the Canadian province of New Brunswick and the U.S. state of Maine in a region called Dawnland. They are one of the constituent nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy.
The Wolastoqiyik, also Wəlastəkwewiyik, Malecite or Maliseet are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the Indigenous people of the Wolastoq valley and its tributaries. Their territory extends across the current borders of New Brunswick and Quebec in Canada, and parts of Maine in the United States.
Cadillac Mountain is located on Mount Desert Island, within Acadia National Park, in the U.S. state of Maine. With an elevation of 1,530 feet, its summit is the highest point in Hancock County and the highest within 25 miles (40 km) of the Atlantic shoreline of the North American continent between the Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia, and peaks in Mexico. It is known as the first place in the continental U.S. to see the sunrise, although that is only true for a portion of the year.
The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 voting members and three nonvoting members. The voting members represent an equal number of districts across the state and are elected via plurality voting. The nonvoting members represent three of Maine's Native American tribes, though two tribes have declined to send representatives. Each voting member of the House represents around 9,000 citizens of the state. Because it is a part-time position, members of the Maine House of Representatives usually have outside employment as well. Members are limited to four consecutive terms of two years each, but may run again after two years.
Harald E. L. Prins is a Dutch anthropologist, ethnohistorian, filmmaker, and human rights activist specialized in North and South America's indigenous peoples and cultures.
The Treaty of Portsmouth, signed on July 13, 1713, ended hostilities between Eastern Abenakis, a Native American tribe and First Nation and Algonquian-speaking people, with the British provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire. The agreement renewed a treaty of 1693 the natives had made with Governor Sir William Phips, two in a series of attempts to establish peace between the Wabanaki Confederacy and colonists after Queen Anne's War.
The Wabanaki Confederacy is a North American First Nations and Native American confederation of five principal Eastern Algonquian nations: the Abenaki of St. Francis, Mi'kmaq, Maleceet, Passamaquoddy (Peskotomahkati) and Penobscot.
Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday in the United States that celebrates and honors indigenous American peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures. It is celebrated across the United States on the second Monday in October, and is an official city and state holiday in various localities. It began as a counter-celebration held on the same day as the U.S. federal holiday of Columbus Day, which honors Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. Many people do not observe Columbus Day at all, citing the lasting harm Indigenous tribes suffered because of Columbus's contributions to the European colonization of the Americas.
Alice Azure is an American poet and writer. She is a member of the St. Louis Poetry Center.
Sherri L. Mitchell - Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset is a Penobscot lawyer, author, teacher and activist from Maine. Mitchell is the author of Sacred Instructions; Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change, a narrative of 'Indigenous Wisdom' that provides "a road map for the spirit and a compass of compassion for humanity."
Lewis Mitchell, a Native American member of the Maine State Legislature in the late 1800s into the early 1900s, is known for his advocacy of the Passamaquoddy people and his work on a plethora of writings in the Passamaquoddy language, of which only some have been preserved. Although he was Passamaquoddy, he was widely versed in Wabanaki tradition, as Wabanaki was the overall surrounding language and more general culture of not just Maine, but the Canadian and New England area, home to several indigenous tribes during this time period.
Shirley Bear was a Tobique First Nation artist, traditional herbalist, poet, and activist. She was an original member of the Wabanaki language group of New Brunswick.
Mother/Land is a book of poems by the self-identified Abenaki descent author and artist Cheryl Savageau published in 2006 by Salt Publishing. According to Salt Publishing's website, Mother/Land “radically re-maps New England as Native American space”. The website for Dawnland Voices notes that some specific New England places that Savageau writes about in her poems include the Pemigewasset River in New Hampshire and Lake Quinsigamond in Massachusetts.
Theresa Secord is an artist, basketmaker, geologist and activist from Maine. She is a member of the Penobscot nation, and the great-granddaughter of the well-known weaver Philomene Saulis Nelson. She co-founded, and was the director of, the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA) in Old Town, Maine.
The Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, also known as the MWTRC, was a commission looking at events relating to Wabanaki children and families from 1978, when the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was passed, until now. The Commission was officially established on February 12, 2012 and issued its final report on June 14, 2015. The MWTRC's mandate was to find Truth, Healing, and Change by giving the Wabanaki people and others involved within the Maine Child Welfare System a place to voice their stories and experiences. The final report addressed findings made by the commission and provided recommendations to improve compliance with the ICWA.
The Maritime Peninsula is a region of eastern North America that extends from the Kennebec River in the U.S. state of Maine northeast to the Maritime provinces of Canada and Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula. It is bounded by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the north and the Gulf of Maine to the south.
Rena D. Newell was the Passamaquoddy tribal representative to the Maine House of Representatives during the 129th and 130th legislatures. During her two terms, she was the only tribal representative in the Maine House.
Rebecca Sockbeson is a Wabanaki scholar and activist in the field of Indigenous Peoples' education.