Back in 2021, Knoll Farm and First Light host a benefit concert by Lula Wiles, supporting Indigenous-led land return in northern New England
The work that we do at First Light is only possible through the collective efforts and commitments of many, many Wabanaki and non-native people. Each person and group involved brings their own trajectory into the work: origins, journeys, transformations, and futures.
First Light is many things at once, and of the many things that First Light is, it is a program of New Learning Journey, a nonprofit based in Vermont. Over the next two years, though, that is going to change. We are in the midst of a thoughtful and strategic organizational transition, through which First Light is going to become an entity independent of New Learning Journey.
We don’t often spend a lot of time sharing the stories of the origins and evolution of First Light as an organization, but in moments of transition, looking to the past provides useful context for understanding the paths ahead.
Each person involved in this journey carries a different perspective on the story of First Light, shaped by their role and contributions. Otto sat down with Peter for a conversation about where he sees the beginnings of this organization.
A version of this story might speak to the convergence of two paths in about a decade ago. The work of return happening in non-native conservation communities now is made possible through the unceasing work of Wabanaki people to sustain culture, sovereignty, and relation in a colonizing world. These legacies begin before the creation of the United States, or the reorganization of the State of Maine. In the past lifetime, Wabanaki protest, political organizing, education, diplomacy, roadblocks – and so many more personal and collective expressions of sovereignty – have resulted in narrative and material shifts in power. In the earliest part of this century, landmark shifts that have made today’s collaborations possible include instating a mandate for Wabanaki Studies in public education (2001), legislation to remove offensive place names (2000), the removal of dams and restoration of the Penobscot River (2004 - 2016), and the mission of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2008 - 2015) to illuminate and address the state’s structural violence against Wabanaki communities. Each of these efforts cracked open the walls enforced by colonization, and are part of what makes First Light possible.
During the same period of time, changes were at play in the conservation community that would eventually allow non-native partners to walk forward with Wabanaki communities. The origins are not always obvious in the moment, but in retrospect can be traced together.
The idea of “community conservation” was growing among non-native land trust and conservation organizations. From 2001-2013, Peter hosted a series of 125 gatherings that brought together more than 3,000 land trust leaders and social justice leaders at Knoll Farm in Vermont. By bringing together people who care for the earth with people who care for justice, Peter hoped to close the gap in understanding between the two. That work helped to nurture a generation of leaders who could bring conservation and social justice together.
In 2012, in response to new demographic data showing that the US would no longer be a majority-white country by 2042, he hosted a series called “2042 Today” that brought together young Indigenous leaders and young non-native land trust leaders to discuss the future of land care. John Banks, who was at that time serving as the first Natural Resources Director for Penobscot Nation, was a part of one of these pivotal conversations where Indigenous leaders voiced the importance of land return.
In 2014, Peter was hired by Maine Coast Heritage Trust to travel the state interviewing people about the possibilities of a new kind of land conservation that specifically addressed a history of land dispossession and which brings people and community together. In Healing and Repairing, Peter asked, “Conservationists have for generations told people what responsibility they have to the planet, but what responsibility do conservationists have to humanity?”
In the wake of these meetings, Peter worked with the Sustainable Southeast Partnership (2014) in Southeast Alaska to develop Indigenous and non-native collaboration. His essay about that groundbreaking collaboration Finding Balance at the Speed of Trust was the vision that was shared in Maine in the early days of talking about what might be possible between Wabanaki people and land trust leaders.
In 2015, Peter and his colleagues Ernie Atencio and Danyelle O’Hara, created the first learning journey prototype, a year-long travel and listening experience that brought 6 land trusts into relationship with Indigenous communities across the United States. The next year, 2016, Peter created New Learning Journey Inc., to create a structure to foster ongoing learning, culture change, and coalition building.
In 2017, these conversations spilled into Maine as Ciona Ulbrich joined Peter in this work. Together, Ciona and Peter began imagining how to bridge the non-native conservation community with Wabanaki communities. They found a committed partner in Dr. Darren Ranco, who showed up for the earliest meetings and continued to share his time, energy, and insight for this work. Eventually, Peter, Ciona, and Darren invited Natural Resource Directors from all of the Wabanaki Tribes for a meeting with non-native conservation organization leaders. These meetings initiated the intercultural dialogue that would evolve into First Light and the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship.
As a program of New Learning Journey, First Light has offered four sustained learning journeys that provided a platform for Wabanaki leaders and fostered a community of committed organizations, working together to recenter Wabanaki voices and presence and undertake the cultural shifts necessary in non-native conservation to make the return of land and resources possible. Each learning journey has been different, as the community learns and grows and faces new conditions. The earliest learning journeys would not have been possible without the belief and support of external partners and New Learning Journey staff. Supporters are too numerous to name, but some include: Kathy Pollard, whose early encouragement was critical to the first Learning Journey; Kiwenik Lolar, who fundamentally shaped the second Learning Journey; and Ella McDonald who became the first First Light staff person beyond Peter, and who helped the second Learning Journey persist through the uncertainty and churn of 2020. These and many more contributors created spaces for committed individuals to venture into the work of self-reflection and organizational change.
This work needed financial resources to keep supporting staff, partners, and convenings. Many of Knoll Farm’s key donors, including foundations like the Kalliopeia Foundation, Cotyledon Fund and others, as well as individual donors, shifted focus to become early and essential supporters of First Light. Foundations in Wabanaki homelands, like Sewall, Onion, Broad Reach, Stone, and Quimby Family Foundations, were early in supporting the work and also joined in the relearning, participating alongside land trust and conservation organizations as they all confronted business-as-usual and identified ways to change.
This is where we find ourselves today: fourteen years after those early conversations with John Banks and other Indigenous leaders at Knoll Farm, the First Light community has grown and has achieved incredible things. Together, we have raised a $1.6 million Solidarity Deposit for Wolankeyutomone Kisi Apaciyewik and we continue to grow this vital resource for Wabanaki land relations. Dozens of organizations have publicly articulated their commitment to work towards return through First Light Community Letters. Together we are halfway through the Tributary Land Returns, the largest return of private land in the United States.
It is the collective effort of so many Wabanaki and non-native people and groups working together that makes return possible, and we are grateful to everyone that makes this work a reality. First Light, as a program with a small staff and modest budget, strives to adapt and evolve, working closely with the Wabanaki Commission and listening to understand emergent needs, and creating spaces for relationship building, hard conversations, coalition building, and growing together. This year, that adaptation and evolution continues.
In 2025, Peter Forbes stepped back from the First Light core team, into the role of Advisor for Transformation and Repair. This step is aligned with a commitment to the intergenerational work of repair which is explored in Peter’s book, Letters to a Young Spoon Carver (2024), a series of letters on the early philosophies and motivations behind the creation of First Light. Over the past year, the core team, Ellie Oldach, Brett Ciccotelli, and Otto Muller, have worked closely with Peter and New Learning Journey staff to design a smooth transition toward organizational independence for First Light. New Learning Journey has helped to launch other endeavors like the Oregon Land Justice Project, so the process of catalyzing, incubating, and launching projects is not unfamiliar, though First Light has also been a uniquely powerful manifestation of the goals and aspirations that led to the founding of New Learning Journey a decade ago.
And for aspirations to live on, they are passed on. The work of First Light is held by many hands, and the core team is working with care and conversation to identify the core roles that First Light currently plays in the changing landscape of the work, and to build a resilient and adaptive structure.