Event Title

Teaching Wabanaki History and Culture in Maine: Challenges and Opportunities

Presenters

Fiona Hopper
Bridgid Neptune

Presenter Information

Fiona Hopper has been a language arts and ESOL teacher in the Portland Public Schools for thirteen years. She also co-founded and co-teaches “Race in the United States: Perspectives for Portland Educators,” an introductory course for Portland teachers on issues of race, racism, privilege, bias, and equity. Currently, Fiona is the social studies teacher leader and Wabanaki Studies coordinator on the district academic team. Hopper grew up in Connecticut and Vermont. She graduated in 2004 from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a double major in feminist studies and literature and a concentration in creative writing. She holds a B.S. in education from the University of Southern Maine and earned an M.A. in English from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College in 2015.

Pender Makin, Maine’s current education commissioner, has devoted herself to the mission of public education. From 1997 to 2003, she was a classroom teacher at Fred C. Wescott Junior High School in Westbrook. She went on to became principal at The REAL School on Mackworth Island in Falmouth from 2003 to 2015. Since 2015, Makin has served as the assistant superintendent of the Brunswick School Department. Makin has served on Maine’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Group since 2014. She is also a co-founder of Collaborative for Perpetual Innovation. Makin grew up in Saco, attended local schools, and graduated from Thornton Academy. She worked as a mate and deckhand on her father’s deep-sea fishing charter boat during the summers beginning at age eight. She earned both her B.A. in English literature and her M.S. in school leadership from the University of Southern Maine and received her teacher certification from the University of New England’s Department of Education in 1996. She lives in Scarborough with her husband, Mike – a middle school science teacher – and their two rescue dogs.

Bridgid Seqoniw Neptune is a citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and grew up on and around Motahkmikuk reservation. She is the mother of two, Aselis and Molihk. In 2011 Neptune earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing and in 2016 a master’s degree in nursing. She has devoted most of her career to emergency medicine. It is her personal experience in the education system, the experiences of her community and of their children, that have motivated Neptune’s work with Portland Public Schools. She is honored to carry forward the work by tribal leaders and continue implementation of LD 291: An Act to Require Teaching of Wabanaki History and Culture.

Location

Saint Francis Room, Ketchum Library, Biddeford Campus

Link to Event Website

https://library.une.edu/mwwc/home/workshops-events/donna-m-loring-lecture-series/

Start Date

8-10-2019 3:30 PM

End Date

8-10-2019 4:30 PM

Streaming Media

Description

Since 2001, Maine law has required that K-12 education incorporate Wabanaki history and culture. Donna M. Loring, who was then the Penobscot Representative to the Maine State Legislature, sponsored the legislation. This year’s Donna M. Loring Lecture assesses Maine’s progress in implementing the law. The speakers, Maine Education Commissioner Pender Makin, Fiona Hopper, Social Studies Teacher Leader and Wabanaki Studies Coordinator in Portland Public Schools, and community partner Bridgid Neptune will address why this mandate is so important, how it has succeeded, and what challenges educators have yet to overcome in order to achieve its goals.