By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — While most summer campers learn silly songs and how to stay away from poison ivy, a handful of Micmaq youngsters who recently participated in a two-day camp with the Wabanaki Writers Project came away with encouragement and confidence to help make their voices heard.
Photo contributed by Vicky Akins
Brandon Mancos forsakes the idea of “don’t look down” as he climbed up the rock wall at UMPI as part of the Wabanaki Writers Project on July 14.
In an engaging, close-knit experience, four Writing Project volunteers showed campers that writing about a canoeing experience can be almost as fun as canoeing itself; the students explored their sense of self, place and culture using their experiences as inspiration to put pen to paper during the July 14 – 15 camp.
Like many summer camps, the Writers Project offered youths memory-making experiences both outdoors and in, canoeing down the Aroostook River and climbing to new heights on the rock wall at UMPI. Interestingly enough, many of the campers found their favorite part of the experience was sitting down at a table with their peers and writing.
“I liked the writing part,” said one youth during a moment of round-table reflection, “I hated writing at the beginning but now I like it.”
The feeling was mutual for many of the other campers, who expressed that the joy of telling a story is easily lost in a sea of red-pen corrections and syntax snafus. The Writers Project day-camp allowed the youngsters an opportunity to tell their stories using vocalization as a means of self-correction for their work.
One of the ways students were able to do this was through “snapshots,” telling the story of a single moment. Whether or not their grammar was perfect on paper, each student was able to vividly describe a memorable instance from their travels whether it was watching a butterfly flutter from canoe to canoe or the view of the river as they fell out of the canoe.
Under the leadership of several project coordinators including Roger Paul, who teaches Wabanaki language at the University of Maine and on Indian Island, the youths combined outdoors adventures with writing and literacy exercises to teach the young campers how to express themselves in relation to culture and the acknowledgement of the Wabanaki view of nature.
Photo contributed by Vicky Akins
Devon Smart paddles down the Aroostook River during day two of his time with the Wabanaki Writers Project.
Coordinators included Paul, Vicky Akins, Paul Frost, and gkisedtanamoogk — who volunteered their time to instill the idea in each camper that they have wonderful stories within them that they’re more than capable of writing.
“The significance of the Wabanaki Writers Project is to specifically deal with the writing skills and the creativity of the Wabanaki people,” said Paul, a member of the Passamaquoddy community. “Being brought up in the culture, we didn’t do a lot of writing.”
“Historically, stories were handed down orally,” he explained, “but the Wabanaki people must adapt and learn to put words, thoughts and expression to paper, or, in this case, laptops. We want to make sure the students’ perspectives are heard and they can articulate in writing exactly who we are as a people,” Paul added.
The project, held at the Spruce Haven camp, is part of the Wabanaki Writers Project, which is part of the Maine Writers Project at the University of Maine, in conjunction with the Micmaq Boys and Girls Club.
