Honoring Peter Forbes in the lineage of First Light
Peter Forbes called together Wabanaki people and non-native conservation people to this work of repair and return. His efforts allowed relationships to spark and proliferate. Where there once was division and lack of relationship, Peter’s efforts planted the seeds for a community of people growing and rowing in the same direction. First Light, today, carries forward many practices modeled by Peter and honed through his work with the Center for Whole Communities, the Refuge at Knoll Farm and the Better Selves Fellowship. Some of those include: extended Learning Journeys that offer the time and deep engagement needed to understand how to transform; asking one another to make heart-centered and courageous statements that counter business-as-usual: convening across cultures, caucussing within communities, challenging deeply-held conservation practices. And coursing through these practices is Peter’s conviction and willingness to voice what’s true. Peter has an ability to see the harms wrought by dominant conservation culture and call for change, and an ability to speak these harms to Wabanaki partners as a starting point for making amends. These efforts opened the way for the relationships that First Light, today, seeks to tend and grow.
As one conservation leader reflected– before First Light, it’s not that conservation was blind to Wabanaki communities, it’s that “we looked the other way”. How long could that have continued? Peter’s conviction, vulnerability, skill, and energies led the conservation community to look towards Wabanaki people. We were fortunate to see Wabanaki partners who agreed to look forward together. Everything else is possible because of that.
Peter is still present in this work but his role has changed, stepping from the role of leader to that of elder and advisor. Dominant culture does not have clearly marked paths that show us how to honor the elders in our work and in our lives and acknowledge the evolving lineage that we benefit from and share in. As bearers and sharers of the tools and traditions that have brought us together in this work, whether we are planting a tree together or facing the most difficult parts of our past, we move forward in gratitude and appreciation of the vision, effort, and gifts that Peter has brought to this work.