Progress report for CNE25-006
Project Information
This project is designed to research and promote appropriate practices of sustainably growing crops. Wabanaki (people of the dawn) known individually as Penobscot, Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Odanak/Wolianak Abenaki, are the original peoples in the eastern woodlands territory. All Nations have been systematically removed and restricted from their traditional homelands and whole food systems. The objective of this project is to reconnect people back to these practices through Traditional Ecological Knowledge, the way the ancestors understood the land. This hands-on learning experience at a Wabanaki owned farm in Penobscot ancestral territory will provide beginning gardens/farmers the tools to becoming food sovereign. Some of the key components of this project is to teach Wabanaki citizens how to start their own home gardens using traditional methods of native plant cover cropping, companion planting, traditional soil amendments (alewives, ash, composted food waste etc.) and cultivation techniques to revive and enhance life in the soil. Participants will receive take home materials in which to refer back to as they continue their journey of growing their own food. Results of the project will be assessed by the number of new gardeners participating in the project, the number of home gardens started and the feedback from the participants whether they feel they have gained the right tools to continue growing their own food and whether this project helped to change any challenges they had before starting the project.
The research objective of this project is to identify and trial plantings of native plants grown in this area that enhances the health of the soil as well as provide useful integrated pest management in a traditional food garden. The research will include speaking with other Traditional Ecological Knowledge keepers about plants and relationships that have been handed down from generation to generation. The promoting and educating objectives of this project is to provide Wabanaki citizens with hands-on experience at a Wabanaki farm to learn how to grow their own food. They will learn traditional Agriculture practices of balancing care of the ecological system and working with the land versus the more extractive ways, such as over tillage, stripping the land, mono-cropping and exerting control over the land that we see in the current western agriculture practices. Together we will identify where the best spot is to locate the new traditional garden beds, why adding new loam is necessary in highly disturbed areas, compost, adding traditional amendments, and soil testing are all necessary for gardens. How to do soil testing and how to read the results of those tests. Participants will learn what are traditional crops, cover crops, and companion planting with native varieties and why it is an important part of the whole system. They will learn when to direct sow seeds, how to start seedlings, what is better to be started indoors as seedlings and when and how to transplant seedlings. We will also demonstrate how to put together a cold frame box/ greenhouse kit to extend the growing season.
The primary goal of this project is to empower more native people grow your own food. Indigenous people have been systemically removed from there ancestral land. With the removal from land came the lost traditions with not being able to practice the inter weaving of the ecosystems connectiveness, the loss of lifeways of how to care for land, and foodways that sustained us by feeding our selves, our families, and communities. This project is directed to reversing the narrative by sharing knowledge, providing guidance and understanding of the whole system not only as they relate to the food systems but to the environment around us. This project is an opportunity to connect people back to the land and how to restore it to a healthy state for food production using traditional knowledge.
The project is for Wabanaki people and their families. The are 5 individual tribal communities in Maine. There are roughly 9,000 native people throughout Maine. Wabanaki people have been forcible removed from their ancestral lands and relocated specific location. This changed the cultural relationship with land, way of life, and traditional foodways for Wabanaki people. Native people live under an unfamiliar set of instructions forced to adapt to a new food system as a means of survival. This unhealthy and unsustainable new food system has created widespread and high rates of chronic health issues such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Underserved communities, such as the Wabanaki’s have limited access to quality healthcare contributing to our health disparities. Life expectancy is lower among the Wabanaki people compared to the non-indigenous communities.
This project is designed reverse this narrative and return Wabanaki people back ancestral ways of caring for ourselves, nurture the earth and growing and eating cultural foods at a Wabanaki farm in Wabanakik (traditional land). The project will connect people back to the land, help understand the importance of their role in the ecologic system, and become knowledgeable on growing food.
Niweskok’s management team is guided by a full Wabanaki Board of Directors. As Wabanaki food providers, herbalists and birth workers, we enact our responsibilities to our traditional matriarchies and to the generations forward, while grounded in the wisdom of our ancestors. We contribute to restoring matriarchies through centering nurturing in all our decision making. Niweskok embodies the transformative power that comes from moving away from extractive practices of exerting power over the land and our relatives (the animals, plants, water, people) towards the balance that comes from acknowledging the earth as our first teacher once again.
Niweskok: From the Stars to Seeds, is an Indigenous lead non-profit organization. Our work provides Wabanaki families opportunities to reconnect with traditional lifeways and practices. Through sustained advocacy, Niweskok reclaims land access for Wabanaki kinship and ancestral food and medicine harvest. We cultivate and distribute traditional Wabanaki food varieties and strengthen other Wabanaki-led food, medicine and land-based projects by offering technical assistance, tools, and resources. Our efforts also encompass traditional medicine teachings, language revitalization and Wabanaki life cycle teachings. Niweskok rematriates Wabanaki lifeways through engaging with our kinship responsibilities and reclaiming traditional foods & healing. We prioritize restoring the Penobscot Bay region as a Wabanaki food hub.
Cooperators
Research
This project will have two separate (one each year) groups of 6 participants each year. The goal is to have each participant receive hands-on experience at the farm and be able to apply that knowledge in starting their own garden at home. Each participant will receive a binder for note taking and handouts describing the current gardening activities we are working on along with tips of the trade from other experienced farmers and Traditional Ecological Knowledge to carry with them. The participants will also be provided with a few essential starting tools and materials to alleviate some barriers such as seed starting kits, potting soil, hand tools for gardening and cold frame/greenhouse kits. Gas cards will be provided to each participant for every in person visit to the farm workshop to help with the cost of traveling to the farm. Each participant will receive two incentive stipends for their participation at mid-year (6 months) and year end (12 months). There will be a final site visit to their home garden by one of the co-lead farmers to offer any assistance they may need and evaluate their progress. The results of this project will be that there are 12 new gardeners/farmers in Wabanakik.
The activity schedule is outlined below for one group per year for 2 years, with 6 people per group. There will be 13 in person workshops per year with the first and second groups overlapping in the spring of 2026. A couple of the workshops will be field trips to gather traditional soil amendments such as seaweed and alewives that are used in Indigenous Agriculture. There will be 3 virtual planning workshops during the winter months where we talk about winter sowing, educational talks relating to Agriculture, and gardening planning for the upcoming season.
Summer 2025 June
- Co-leads will begin researching
- Native plants
- Native companion plants
- Native cover crops
- Traditional ways of planting
Summer 2025 June-August
Group 1
- 6 hands on trainings- two each month
- Locate spot for garden
- develop plan
- soil evaluation
- soil testing
- add amendments
- plant cover crop
- plant perennial companion plants
- start cool season seedlings
- plant cool season cover crop
- plants cool season seedlings
- Research traditional native plants for this territory
- Speak with other Traditional Knowledge Keepers about traditional plants
- Develop flyer about the program with dates of the workshop
Fall 2025 September -November
- 3 hands on trainings- one each month
- Add more compost
- Plant cool season crops
- plant more perennial
- companion plants
- cold frame demonstration
- Harvest
- storage/preserving/seed saving
Winter 2026 January-March
- 2 virtual trainings
- 1 hands on
- planning for the coming season
- winter sowing
- seed start cool season seedlings indoors
Spring 2026 April-May
Group 1 and 2
- 2 virtual trainings
- 2 hands on trainings
- add compost
- plant seedlings
- direct sow
Summer 2026 June-August
Group 2
- 6 hands on trainings- two each month
- Locate spot for garden
- develop plan
- soil evaluation
- soil testing
- add amendments
- plant cover crop
- plant perennial companion plants
- start cool season seedlings
- plant cool season cover crop
- plant cool season seedlings
Fall 2026 September -November
- 3 hands on trainings- one each month
- Add more compost
- Plant cool season crops
- plant more perennial companion plants
- cold frame demonstration
- Harvest
- storage/preserving/seed saving
Winter 2027 January-March
- 2 virtual trainings
- 1 hands on
- planning for the coming season
- winter sowing
- seed start cool season seedlings
Spring 2027 April-May
- 1 virtual trainings
- 1 hands on trainings
- add compost
- transplant seedlings
- direct sow
Education & outreach activities and participation summary
Participation summary:
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
- Understanding soil and soil analysis
- Regenerating/ building soil to a health level using traditional methods
- Understanding the role Native plants play in soil and the ecological system
- Gardening/farming planning
- Identify different plants such as annuals/perennials, cold/warm season, short/long season
- Seed starting transplants, self-sow planting
- Cover crops
- Interplanting/companion planting
- Mulching
Project Outcomes
There has not been a change in behaviors as of yet as it is early in the project.
There has not been a change in the approach yet as it is early in the project.