Conversation featuring Shannon Hill from Mi’kmaq Nation, Darren Ranco from the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship, Brett Ciccotelli from First Light, Anne Read from Trust for Public Land, Tom Duffus from The Conservation Fund, facilitated by Otto Muller
This summer, Mi’kmaq Nation welcomed back two places in their homelands. These two returns, Mesgilg Maqamigew and Pugweliget, are part of the Tributary Land Returns, a collaboration between the Wabanaki Commission on Land & Stewardship and the First Light community to return over 50,000 acres to Wabanaki communities across the place now called Maine.
Project partners from these two land returns gathered on zoom to share their learnings from both of these projects with the First Light community.
Land returns are about so much more than acreage. These two returns are very different in size, and each offers a unique and important opportunity for land connection. Mesgilg Maqamigew (“big land”) is a 3,400 acre parcel of forests, streams, and wetlands which doubled the Nation’s landbase. Pugweliget (“living together in a group”), a 83 acre parcel abutting one of the Nation’s housing developments, gives residents room to breathe and access the forest right at their doorsteps. Shannon Hill emphasized that while different in scale, both returns are equally significant to Mi’kmaq Nation.
Partners discussed some unexpected benefits that can come from public storytelling about land returns. After Mesgilg Maqamigew was returned, Mi’kmaq Nation put out a press release and received significant press coverage. Within a week, multiple neighboring landowners reached out, offering to sell land that abuts the Nation’s current landholdings. Land return stories are powerful, and this return is now leading to two more parcels of land coming back to Mi’kmaq Nation.
Most of all, panelists emphasized the importance of the long-standing relationships and trust building that made both of these land returns possible.