Four Decades & Four Bills: Dealing with Offensive Names & Symbols in Maine

Place Justice is a statewide truth-seeking and historical recovery initiative of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations that seeks to engage Wabanaki and Maine communities in examining a wide range of commemorative practices to better understand and respond to the ways in which racialized and Indigenous populations are represented in or absent from the narratives inscribed on our natural and built environment.

Launching February 7, a nine-part Place Justice Event Series will feature free, virtual and in-person panel discussions and film screenings to engage the public in considering some often complex and contentious issues. Whose stories are being told and whose suppressed? Whose legacies are being forwarded, and at whose expense? 

EVENT: Four Decades & Four Bills: Dealing with Offensive Names & Symbols in Maine

February 7th, 5:00PM-6:00PM | Attend live via Zoom

Hosted by the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations.

Until very recently, racial slurs remained inscribed on Maine’s landscapes and racist mascots were cherished by schools and their communities. How did these symbols that disparage and dehumanize Black and Indigenous people come to be? Why have they persisted for so long? And what harmful vestiges remain still today? 

Join Maine House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross and Penobscot Tribal Ambassador Maulian Dana  to learn about efforts on the part of civil rights and Indigenous leaders over the past 40 years to eradicate offensive place names and images and to consider why earlier legislative efforts to eradicate them have proved insufficient.

REGISTER HERE

Learn more about the Permanent Commission, the Place Justice Project, and the full event series.

Contact us with your questions: placejusticemaine@gmail.com