OUR JOURNEY
L.I.N.K. (Linking Indigenous & Non-Indigenous Knowledge), a local Cape Cod organization, was formed in 2022 by a group of non-Indigenous folk living on Cape Cod. We felt a lack of connection between ourselves and the Wampanoag people and were looking for ways we might effect change. It became clear to us that before there could be any possibility of change, we needed to educate ourselves as to the true history and culture of the Wampanoag people.
We started by creating a study group and then a community book group. We obtained 501c3 status, raised funds, and brought education to the larger community through programs taught by Indigenous teachers and elders. We saw the value of an Indigenous world view including a deep connection to the earth (see list comparing Western and Indigenous world views view here). We learned the horrific history of genocide, the taking of the land, and the injustice of broken treaties. We came to understand that we ourselves were living on land stolen from the Wampanoag people.
While our programs contributed to raising awareness within our community, we view them as only a beginning. In late 2025, the L.I.N.K. Core Group (now 10 of us) took a pause in our programming. We began a time of reflection, a rethinking of the role of L.I.N.K. as an organization, and how we at L.I.N.K. might be of service going forward.
Our journey with L.I.N.K. has been personal. We as individuals are not where we were when we started in 2022. We have learned so much, surprised by what we didn’t know. We recognize that we are in an ongoing, cyclical process which could be described as follows: It often begins in our heads, with an intellectual learning of facts, such as the many tactics used to commit genocide and take land. As it breaks through layers of ignorance, denial and hidden bias, this information impacts us emotionally, allowing shock, anger, grief and empathy to surface. Hearts break open, and we will never see or feel the same again.
This is the process of our own internal decolonization. As we open ourselves further to better understand the ways of being that our Indigenous knowledge-keepers have introduced to us, we have begun to deepen our own relationships with the natural world. We are learning to integrate and ground our growing awareness and understanding in our own bodies. We realize that this process can't be forced. It must be nurtured, allowed to uniquely unfold in each of us, and it requires a safe and accepting community in which to occur.
In seeking to “decolonize”, we recognize the continued influence of settler colonialism. Rather than holding guilt for the past, we are choosing to take responsibility for the present.
Our goal is to join with others as we bring to L.I.N.K.’s wider community the understandings we are coming to – through our website and list of resources, our Community Book Group, conversation circles, films, speakers, and other offerings. We also recognize and value the many other ways in which Wampanoag wisdom and knowledge is being offered and shared by other people and organizations.
Everything that is important about the possibility of Wampanoag and non-Indigenous relations rests on a shift in our individual and collective consciousness. This is our vision.
