#Tag · bonfire.cafe

Another 2025 #Nihkaniyane honoree -#BrianneLolar!

"Brianne Lolar is one of three individuals honored by the #WabanakiAlliance at the 2025 Nihkaniyane event. A citizen of the #PenobscotNation, Lolar is a beloved elementary school teacher who left the classroom four years ago to begin doing equally important work as the first #WabanakiStudies Specialist for the Maine Department of Education. In that work she is bringing voice and representation to the Wabanaki people through partnerships with Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators and organizations who’ve been working together to achieve unmet goals and objectives of the 2001 requiring that #WabanakiHistory and culture be taught and integrated into the K-12 curriculum.

"A 2022 report from the Wabanaki Alliance, #AbbeMuseum, #ACLU of Maine, and Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission noted the law has not been implemented meaningfully across the state. Those findings and the work of a task force leading up to the report are what led Lolar to leave her 'happy place' of teaching in the classroom and enter the challenging give-and-take realm of state government where she’s been working on year-to-year contracts to help teachers and school districts fulfill the goals of the 2001 law.

" 'I knew I can’t complain about nothing being done if I’m not going to step up and sacrifice,' she says. 'My thinking was ‘It’s just a year and I’ll go back to teaching. It could go away again at any time. So I need to make the most of this opportunity.'

"Her sense of urgency motivated a 'can-do' approach that made sure yearly progress was being made to create a solid foundation for Wabanaki studies being taught across the entire state."

#WabanakiAlliance #Wabanaki #LanguagePreservation #WabanakiLanguage #CulturalPreservation #PreservingHistory #IndigenousLanguage #IndigenousHistory #Teachers

Image of a woman with short brown hair, smiling.

DoomsdaysCW

@DoomsdaysCW@kolektiva.social replied · last month

Another #Nihkaniyane Honoree, #EmmaSoctomah, is the daughter of Elizabeth Neptune and #DonaldSoctomah -- Donald being another person I learned a lot from when I was covering the #MaineRivers conference! Emma is also the grandchild of renowned #Passamaquoddy #Basketmaker #MollyNeptuneParker.

"Emma Soctomah is a Passamaquoddy citizen of #Motahkomikuk and was the 2025 class valedictorian at University of Maine Machias,where she majored in psychology and community studies. She was an active participant in the college’s Kinap Mentorship Program, which creates both on- and off-campus programs aimed at bringing together #Wabanaki cultural values and Indigenous ways of knowing with Western education. She plans to continue working at the elementary school in Motahkomikuk and will pursue a master’s degree beginning in fall 2026. Soctomah is the daughter of Donald Soctomah and Elizabeth Neptune and the granddaughter of world renowned basketmaker Molly Neptune Parker. Soctomah is also a nationally recognized basketmaker and was among the first artists to receive an #AbbeMuseum Wabanaki #Artist Fellowship."

Learn more about Emma:
https://www.wabanakialliance.com/nihkaniyane2025-emmasoctomah/

#CulturalPreservation #PreservingHistory #IndigenousLanguage #IndigenousHistory #TraditionalArts #NativeAmericanArtists #valedictorian

A young woman with long hair, wearing a white sleeveless shirt and blue jeans, sitting on a stone fence and smiling.

DoomsdaysCW

@DoomsdaysCW@kolektiva.social · last month

One of the folks I had the opportunity to talk to at a #MaineRivers conference some years ago was #PenobscotNation member #JohnBanks. So glad to see him being honored... He has been a tireless advocate for the #PenobscotRiver!

"Banks was the Penobscot Nation’s representative on the Maine-Indian State Tribal Commission from 1987 to 2021, making him its longest-serving member. He also served on many local, regional and national organization boards, including the National Tribal Environmental Council, Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, National Indian Policy Center, and the Tribal Operations Committee with the federal EPA.

"But arguably Banks’ most noteworthy accomplishment involves bringing a Wabanaki voice and leadership to the historic #PenobscotRiverRestorationProject (1999-2016) in which two dams nearest to the sea were removed and a stream-like bypass channel was completed around a third dam at Howland.

"Completed in 2016, the $63 million restoration project opened almost 2,000 miles of habitat for 11 species of sea-run fish that had been choked off from their spawning grounds for almost two centuries by dams across the river.

"Since then, the river has come back alive with millions of river herring joined by Atlantic salmon, shad, sturgeon and other species in numbers that hadn’t been seen on the Penobscot River for nearly two centuries. Laura Rose Day credits Banks with a key intervention in 2002, when it looked like negotiations that had been going on for three years between #EnvironmentalGroups and the #hydro company owner were about to collapse.

" '[John] asked for a few minutes,' she wrote in a 2014 Christian Science Monitor commentary recalling the moment. 'Removing an eagle feather from a cloth wrap, he circled the table, laying the feather on each shoulder. He reminded us that, no matter whom we served, we were also responsible for being the voice for all the creatures of the river – the birds, the fish, and all of the people as well. The common goal had to be the health of the river.' "

#WaterIsLife #WabanakiAlliance #Wabanaki #Nihkaniyane #MaineRivers #DamRemoval #RiverRestoration

A man with short white hair and a mustache, wearing layers of clothing. He has a concerned look on his face. Behind him is a wide river. Along the banks are trees, whose leaves are turning to red and gold.

DoomsdaysCW

@DoomsdaysCW@kolektiva.social replied · last month

Another 2025 #Nihkaniyane honoree -#BrianneLolar!

"Her sense of urgency motivated a 'can-do' approach that made sure yearly progress was being made to create a solid foundation for Wabanaki studies being taught across the entire state."

#WabanakiAlliance #Wabanaki #LanguagePreservation #WabanakiLanguage #CulturalPreservation #PreservingHistory #IndigenousLanguage #IndigenousHistory #Teachers

DoomsdaysCW

@DoomsdaysCW@kolektiva.social · 3 months ago

I trust #InternetArchive with government documents more than I do the government! (Or #AI for that matter...)

Internet Archive is now an official #USGovernment document #library

by Steve Dent
Fri, July 25, 2025

"The US Senate has granted the Internet Archive federal depository status, making it officially part of an 1,100-library network that gives the public access to government documents, #KQED reported. The designation was made official in a letter from California Senator Alex Padilla to the Government Publishing Office that oversees the network. 'The Archive's digital-first approach makes it the perfect fit for a modern #FederalDepositoryLibrary, expanding access to federal government publications amid an increasingly digital landscape,' he wrote.

"Established by Congress in 1813, the Federal Depository Library Program is designed to help the public access government records. Each congressional member can designate up to two libraries, which include government information like budgets, a code of federal regulations, presidential documents, economic reports and census data.

"With its new status, the Internet Archive will be gain improved access to government materials, founder Brewster Kahle said in a statement. 'By being part of the program itself, it just gets us closer to the source of where the materials are coming from, so that it’s more reliably delivered to the Internet Archive, to then be made available to the patrons of the Internet Archive or partner libraries.' The Archive could also help other #libraries move toward #DigitalPreservation, given its experience in that area.

"It's some good news for the site which has faced legal battles of late. It was sued by major #publishers over loans of #DigitalBooks during the #Coronavirus epidemic and was forced by a federal court in 2023 to remove more than half a million titles. And more recently, major music labels filed lawsuits over its #Great78Project that strove to preserve #78RPM records. If it loses that case it could owe more than $700 million damages and possibly be forced to shut down.

"The new designation likely won't aid its legal problems, but it does affirm the site's importance to the public. 'In October, the Internet Archive will hit a milestone of 1 trillion pages,' Kahle wrote. 'And that 1 trillion is not just a testament to what libraries are able to do, but actually the sharing that people and governments have to try and create an #EducatedPopulace.' "

https://tech.yahoo.com/general/articles/internet-archive-now-official-us-123036550.html

#BigPublishing #Archives #BigMusic #CulturalPreservation #DigitalPreservation #WaybackMachine #Archiving #FairUse #Archives #Capitalism #Corporatism #FightForTheFuture #EmpoweringLibraries

Software Heritage

@swheritage@mstdn.social · 10 months ago

🚨 D-20 to the Software Heritage Symposium!

Join us Jan 29 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris to explore the intersection of #software, #AI, and society. Key themes: #cybersecurity, #AItransparency, #openscience, #culturalpreservation.

Let’s shape the future 👉 https://www.softwareheritage.org/2024/11/19/software-heritage-2025-symposium-summit/