Kaya Lolar’s public comment on social studies revised standards

Public Comment from Kaya Lolar,
Panawahpskek citizen and former MEEA Fellow

Sen. Rafferty, Rep. Brennan, and members of the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs,

My name is Kaya Lolar. I am a Panawahpskek (Penobscot) citizen, Harvard College senior, John Bapst alum, and former student of RSU #34 (Kindergarten-Grade 8). I also have been working regularly to make materials regarding Wabanaki studies available for educators since my high school years, and I currently work as both an instructional designer and Wabanaki advisor alongside the DOE to continue this important mission. Through my elementary and middle school years, I received very little teaching regarding Wabanaki studies, and the majority of what I did receive was incredibly generalized, focusing on Indigenous people as a “whole” or Indigenous tribes/nations that are not a part of the Wabanaki Confederacy, despite the fact that our school sat on land that was once occupied by Panawahpskek people and is less than a five-minute drive from the current Penobscot Nation Reservation. I struggled with my identity growing up, as many young children would (and do) when searching for representation in a space where it seldom exists. Sometimes, teachers would look to me when a question came up about the Wabanaki in class that they didn’t know the answer to, like I was born with an expertise on every aspect of our culture and history. This frustrated me. It made my sense of identity feel even more unstable, but I don’t blame the teachers. It can be scary to teach about something you know very little about, especially when you know you could be teaching a child something about herself or her people that turns out to be wrong. If not for the sake of all students learning openly and holistically of the first peoples of our land, Wabanaki studies should at the very least be taught for the sake of the young Indigenous students today struggling to feel welcomed or valued in a system that wipes their ancestors from our educational memory.

I’ve spent a great deal of time collaborating with and listening to educators over the past several years, as a substitute teacher, classroom volunteer, and now through my work alongside the DOE, and the most overwhelming response I’ve heard from these educators when asked why Wabanaki studies has not been thoroughly implemented in their schools since it was enacted into law in 2001 is a lack of resources and confidence. It is clear that further guidance, resources, and encouragement are necessary in order to ensure that Wabanaki Studies is taught in the way that LD291 originally required in 2001.

This is why it is crucial that we integrate Wabanaki Studies directly into our standards and, frankly, that we do not just stop there. The tendency to teach only about Indigenous people in an isolated unit perpetuates the idea that we are separate from today’s society–that we don’t exist in the same spaces as our peers whose history is woven cyclically through our social studies curriculum. This should not be something groundbreaking, and the long overdue implementation of Wabanaki Studies structurally into Maine’s education should not be seen as something that takes away from other underrepresented groups, and we now have our own Wabanaki Studies Specialist working alongside an incredible team of educators and advisors to amply support other educators on their Wabanaki studies journeys. I urge the committee to vote ought to pass.

Woliwoni,
Kaya Lolar