Malaga Island: History hits close to home for educators
PHIPPSBURG — Until earlier this summer, Brad Lopes had never heard of Malaga Island. It wasn’t until he received an email from the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine about a teacher workshop that he became aware of the small island, just a pitching wedge from Phippsburg that tells the story of a dark time in Maine’s history.
Lopes teaches at the New School in Kennebunk and is Wampanoag, Native Americans from southern Massachusetts. He said upon researching more about Malaga that he had stumbled across an important moment in Maine’s history that echoed global trends and forces of change that he had never known about.
“Being Wampanoag and an educator, I have strived to teach and discuss history from a diverse and multicultural perspective that shows the interconnectedness of people and the places they occupy,” Lopes said. “Malaga is a snapshot of Maine history that emphasizes that intersectionality.”
The story of the 41-acre Malaga Island is one that a lot of people either don’t know about or don’t want to discuss. Whites, blacks and people of mixed-race were forcibly evicted from Malaga in 1912 under orders from Frederick W. Plaisted, then governor of Maine. Plaisted visited the island in 1911 and, after meeting the 47 residents who had lived there since the 1860s, decided they were unfit to continue calling the island home. The residents lived in a poor community on a small island opposite Bear Island, where wealthy and powerful white men wanted to build a resort hotel.
Read more: https://www.coastaljournal.com/2018/08/16/malaga-island-history-hits-close-to-home-for-educators/
= new reply since forum marked as read
