The Mashpee Wampanoag Native Environmental ambassadors hosted their first successful Indigenous Rights of Nature Gathering this past August. Under the direction of youth Advisors Ciara Oakley-Robbins and Secretary Talia Landry, the youth hosted Indigenous youth, elders, and culture keepers representing over 20 native nations. The week long gathering facilitated fruitful conversations on protecting our natural relatives and provided our Mashpee homelands as a space for unity across Turtle Island. The youth hosted panels with native leaders in this conversation while engaging with other tribal youth to strengthen efforts within their communities. The gathering brought our nation together with our relatives to share traditional stories and cultural similarities. From the pond, to clam bakes, ceremony, and traditional homesite at Maushop farm, the youth showed our native relatives the good ol’ mashpee, and we cannot be more proud.

Sitka, Alaska is where the youth embarked on a rights of nature fellowship to begin what has now become the Native Environmental Ambassadors. This gathering brought the Herring Protectors from Sitka to Mashpee, where they brought a robing ceremony to our NEA that created a remarkable unification to protect our relative the herring.