UNE Sustainability Intern Summer at HOB

Hello, my name is Miranda Carrabba and this summer I have the privilege of serving as a University of New England Summer Sustainability Fellow, working in partnership with the Heart of Biddeford on a Scientific Discovery on Main Street grant. The goal of this project is to bring scientific learning and celebration to Main Street communities through asset-based approaches that elevate local science, natural history, and place-based learning opportunities. Community outreach revealed that the two scientific assets most valued by residents are the Saco River and the people who call this place home. We decided to focus our exploration on what the community can learn from the river, and how our actions affect the natural environment. 

The next exciting step of this project is to design a public event or exhibit that centers these assets. As this vision began to take form, a consistent request to approach the scientific history of the Saco River holistically emerged. Part of that holistic approach is to explore the indigenous connection to the river. Through this project we hope to highlight environmental science that is centered around indigenous knowledge. There is a slow growing recognition among non-native people that Indigenous populations are not just in our history books, they are an intrinsic piece of our present and our future. Indigenous knowledge must be intertwined into how we understand and protect our shared environments if we truly want to approach this project holistically. 

As a first step in deepening our understanding, Delilah, the Heart of Biddeford Director, and I traveled to Sipayik, a self-governing Passamaquoddy community. We were given an incredible opportunity to listen and learn from the community’s stories, history and their relationship to the land and water. 

Our phenomenal guide for the day was Minquansis Sapiel, whose name means Little Rainbow. She took us on the Passamaquoddy Cultural Tour that was chartered through Eastport Charter. Kinny the captain led us into Passamaquoddy Bay while Minquan shared stories passed down from her ancestors. 

She started by speaking of a time when the sky turned black with so many birds, and how the bay would look like the water was boiling because there were so many fish. She spoke about how these were signs of a healthy ecosystem. What she told us was not just a myth, or a story, they were memories passed down through generations of observation and relationship with the natural world. Looking out over the still water it was hard to imagine the black sky and the boiling bay. 

Heading deeper into the bay our boat passed through the Old Sow Whirlpool, which is the second largest whirlpool in the world. Minquan shared how this natural phenomenon is produced by the powerful tides flowing into the bay and how these dynamic tides are integral to the health of the ecosystem.  

She then spoke about how her people’s relationship to the bay has been fractured. She pointed out two causeways that connect Sipayik to Eastport explaining that the causeways were built in the 1930s as part of the Passamaquoddy Bay Tidal Power Project. This project had the hopes of generating electricity from the powerful tides located in the bay. 

While framed as a form of sustainable development these two causeways came with serious ecological and cultural costs. The causeways disrupted natural tidal flows, making it more difficult for fish to access the bay. This led to a decline in species diversity and restricted the Passamaquoddy people’s access to the bay and the ocean itself. These disruptions caused by the Tidal Power Project were not only ecological, they were also cultural, emotional, and spiritual. When an infrastructure project creates barriers that block traditional cultural practices the long history of harm acted against indigenous peoples continues. Passing over the causeway earlier by car, I never would have thought of all the consequences a road would cause to the surrounding environment, and people.

To the Passamaquoddy, the bay, the ocean, the rivers, and the land, are not separate from the people. They live in relationship with each other. Minquan highlighted that in order to stop making the same mistakes seen in the Tidal Power Project, we need a cultural shift. We need to move beyond viewing the environment as a collection of “natural resources” and instead recognize the land, water, and all living beings as our ancestors. If we listen to the knowledge of the people who have lived here for 13,000 years on this land and water, we will have the potential to fully understand how sustainability works. The shift from looking at the environment as a resource we can extract from to an ancestor that protects and supports us is essential. It will allow us to engage with the environment not through extraction and ownership, but through respect, reciprocity, and kinship. This perspective would reframe what sustainability truly means. Sustainability is not just about protecting nature but is about honoring relationships that have existed long before us and must continue long after us. 

As I return to my work back in Biddeford I will carry these lessons with me. They will directly inform the event or exhibit we are developing as part of the Scientific Discovery on Main Street grant. We hope that our work can highlight the ecological importance of the Saco River, the stories of the people who live alongside it, and importantly, Indigenous perspectives that reflect deep, place-based knowledge of the river. 

What I learned at Sipayik reinforces the idea that sustainability is not only about science but about relationships, with place, with history and with each other. These relationships thrive when they are rooted in reciprocity, respect, and listening. 

This wasn’t just a trip, it was a reminder. A reminder that knowledge is not only found in books or in labs. It lives in stories. In water. In language. In history. In the ongoing presence of Indigenous people who have always listened to their ancestors. Through this project we hope we can teach the people of Biddeford how to listen to the river. 

To take the Passamaquoddy Cultural Tour, click here for more information.