Please join your funder colleagues for regular conversations and information sharing on partnering and supporting Maine's Tribal communities. This network group from Maine Philanthropy Center will connect colleagues interested in or currently investing in Indigenous communities and organizations. It will be an opportunity to share learning, advance collaboration, and build relationships.

Wabanaki Food Sovereignty & Indigenous Research Methods

The first part of this meeting will feature a presentation from Dr. Tony Sutton, a research focused on food sovereignty in Wabanaki communities. Find out the results from Dr. Sutton's latest focus group conversations and learn about indigenous research methods. 

Dr. Tony Sutton, Speaker

As a joint appointment in Native American Programs and Cooperative Extension, Tony supports food sovereignty for Wabanaki communities. This includes developing classes about indigenous knowledge and foodways, advising students engaging with tribal communities, and developing programming and or technical assistance for community food programs. Tony’s research connects history and indigenous research methods to inform collaborative contexts and critical attention to policy that shapes fisheries and food sovereignty in ways inconsistent with Wabanaki foodways.

Tony is also on the planning team for the Wabanaki Commission for Land and Stewardship (WCLS). The mission for the WCLS is to facilitate creating access to ancestral homeland territory to support land-based cultural practices while also creating formal processes for re-acquiring ancestral territory. The planning team’s role is to create the WCLS as a non-profit and centering priorities for each tribal nation. This includes outreach to other indigenous conservation groups, create access protocols between Wabanaki people and conservation groups; land transactions; and maintaining educational resources.

Prior to moving to his current position, Tony worked on the Maine Shellfish Learning Network, a collaboration that he maintains through his current position at the University of Maine. On this project, he engaged tribal nations, clammers, municipalities, research institutions, and state agencies to support the needs and future vision of the softshell clam fishery. His work included completing interviews with the diverse range of voices in the industry to develop a work plan; developing policy documents that identify barriers to Wabanaki clammers; reintegrating Wabanaki perspectives, knowledge, and values into The Mudflat website, technical documents, and through our newsletter that has a coast-wide audience of shellfish harvesters, science organizations, non-profits, and educational institutions.