The Skowhegan History House Museum & Research Center continues its Wabanaki Voices Speaker Series with Natalie Michelle, member of the Panawapskwei (Penobscot) Nation, on Thursday, July 7, at 7pm at Tewksbury Hall - located on Weston Avenue behind the Federated Church on the island in Skowhegan - and will also be broadcast via Zoom. She will present, "The Impacts of Earth Changes on Turtle Island; The Wabanaki”. Her lecture will review the historical and climate impact on cultural customs and practices of indigenous interrelationship and interdependency linking Native lifeways within the ecology.

The discussion will encompass the cultural paradigms of environmental relationship, stewardship, lifeways, holism, spiritual connections, kinship ties and oral histories. Traditional economic systems of food acquisition including the cultural practices for utilitarian procurement of culturally important species remain fundamental in the recovery, language preservation that encompasses the transmission and mobilization of traditional ecological knowledge important to adaptation in environmental changes. Multifaceted mechanisms Impacting Socio-ecological Resiliency of the Wabanaki will be presented including the identification of major Climate Change indicators of the Wabanaki and what it means for Wabanaki cultural survival.

Natalie Michelle's diverse background includes Nursing and BS in Human Nutrition and an MA in Public Administration, Pi Alpha Alpha with a concentration in Environmental Management and Sustainability. She is a PHD in Interdisciplinary Studies in Ethnobotanical Studies at the University of Maine at Orono. Her interests are in areas of Climate Change Impacts on Cultural Practices, Food Sovereignty, Indigenous Research Methodology, and TEK and Language as an Adaptive Strategy.

Masks are required for in-person attendance.

To register for the Zoom link, visit msad54.maineadulted.org.

FMI:  (207) 474-6632.