Paper short abstract:

Decolonizing Land Trusts requires re-imagining the role of Land Trusts and building Tribal Nation infrastructures for former Land Trust lands. This paper looks at the example of both the decolonization of Land Trusts and ongoing attempts at Tribal Nation infrastructure across Wabanaki Lands.

Paper long abstract:

In 2018, a coalition of land trust organizations, later called First Light Learning Journey, answered a generations-old call by Wabanaki (Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, Abenaki, and Micmac) people and reached out to Wabanaki educators, land managers, governments, artisans, and activists to find areas of commonality related to access for Wabanaki cultural and natural resources and possibilities of land return in what is now known as Maine. This paper will examine the cultural, policy, and infrastructure challenges in this work, centering on the ongoing colonial legacies and desires in land trusts, their attempt at recognizing and reforming these legacies and desires, and Indigenous people's response to these organizations and their attempts at reform. The paper will chart a course from initial attempts by land trusts to realize and recognize they are on Indigenous lands, to the possibilities and concrete actions that lead to greater Indigenous access to their traditional homelands and land return.