Bridging Cultures, Honoring All

This July, Mano en Mano worked alongside Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness to celebrate the start of the blueberry harvest and welcome folks to the Downeast area.

Sipayik women's drum group. Photo by Brianna Smith

With support from the Maine Health Access Foundation (MeHAF), we organized a welcome event designed to welcome families to the area, connect folks to essential resources and celebrate culture, language and identity.

The  event entitled, Bridging Cultures, Honoring All, was designed to create a space for year-round and seasonal  community members to come together and celebrate the different people, communities, and cultures that come to Maine to take part in the 2023 blueberry harvest. We wanted to pay respect to the people that were here before colonization, celebrate tribal nations and indigenous members of our community, and welcome migrant, immigrant, and year-round community members in order to build bridges and create connections.

At the event community members were welcomed with a warm meal prepared by members of the Wabanaki community, and were invited to visit ‘Our Mercadito’, Mano en Manos culturally nourishing food pantry. We were also joined by partner organizations (Pathstones, WIC, ILAP, Pine Tree Legal, Preble Street, andmore!)  who were able to assist year-round and seasonal community member access support in the areas of education, health, social services, and legal aid.  Additionally, Mano en Manos outreach team supported folks who worked as farm workers over the pandemic to apply for a relief grant from the Food and Farmworker Relief Grant Program.  

Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness welcomed the Sipayik women's drum group.  The drumming was a way to celebrate the start of the harvest and to celebrate and honor culture. It created a wonderful opportunity highlight Indigenous traditions with drumming, singing, language, and of course food from WPHW Food Sovereignty team and Smokey’s BBQ owned by Charles Stevens a Passamaqoddy citizen. 

This event was meaningful to many folks in the area. Many community members have shared that there are limited spaces where they feel comfortable and welcome to celebrate their  identity and culture.  We wanted to create a space to honor and welcome everyone who attended the event in order to practice our cultures, share traditions, and form meaningful connections.  In total, we welcomed about 500 people to the event!

We want to send our gratitude to everyone who made this special day possible and especially Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness for being such an incredible partner!