ORONO – Wabanaki reconciliation will be the focus of a keynote address at the annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast on Jan. 19, sponsored by the Greater Bangor Area NAACP and the University of Maine.
Doors open at 8 a.m. in UMaine’s Wells Conference Center. Tickets are $20; $12.50 for children 12 and younger; free for students with a MaineCard. Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance. Early ticket purchase is recommended (umaine.edu/multicultural). For ticket information or to request a disability accommodation, call 207.581.4095.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast will open with welcoming remarks by Michael Alpert, president of the Greater Bangor Area NAACP; UMaine President Susan Hunter; and UMaine Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Robert Dana.
Keynote speakers Esther Attean and Denise Altvater will speak on “Truth, Healing and Change: Maine-Wabanaki Reconciliation.” Attean and Altvater are the advisers to the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
Attean, a member of the Passamaquoddy Nation, co-directs Maine-Wabanaki REACH and is a training specialist with the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, working with young people transitioning out of foster care. Attean was part of the Indian Child Welfare Act Training Workgroup and for seven years worked for the Penobscot Nation Department of Human Services, providing family support and community program development services.
Altvater is the youth outreach and education coordinator of Maine-Wabanaki REACH, and directs Maine’s Wabanaki Youth Program of the American Friends Service Committee. She is the Passamaquoddy representative to the Maine Indian Tribal State Commission and the Wabanaki liaison on the Board of Overseers for the Maine State Prison. For decades, she has worked to create a support and communication network for Native communities in the region.
Other community leaders expected to participate include gkisedtanmoogk, a commissioner with the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission; and Mother Marguerite A.H. Steadman of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bangor.

 

For more information about the breakfast, call 207.581.1406.

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