A Bangor, Maine, nonprofit aims to launch construction of a $6.5 million downtown Wabanaki Cultural Center this spring, the Daily News reported recently.
Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness (WPHW) will convert the first floor and mezzanine of 16 Central St. in downtown Bangor into a cultural center that caters to local youth and shares Indigenous culture with the region.
The space, which last supported local retailer Epic Sports, is downstairs from the organization's offices. WPHW first leased the property after moving in early 2023, then bought the space late last year, according to Lisa Sockabasin, the nonprofit's CEO.
The cultural center is designed to include a stage, a room to show Indigenous films and a commercial kitchen where people can sample Indigenous foods and share recipes. There also will be space for after-school youth programs, a rock-climbing wall and an art exhibit, according to renderings of the project.
Once launched, the cultural center will breathe new life into a space in the heart of downtown Bangor that has sat largely empty since Epic Sports closed its doors in the fall of 2022. Other businesses downtown have followed suit by either moving elsewhere or shuttering entirely.
Sockbasin said everyone will be welcome in the center, regardless of how much they know about the Indigenous people of Maine. Visitors also do not have to be citizens of the Wabanaki tribes to enjoy the center and take advantage of its resources.
"This cultural center is a place of connection for all community members, and it's a place for us to learn from each other," Sockabasin said. "Wherever you are in your journey of engaging and understanding Wabanaki principles, values and people, we have a place for you."
The space also will be decorated with artistic representations of Maine's natural resources, including a river, ocean and Mount Katahdin, with information on the significance of each in Indigenous culture.
Pillars in the main room will be redesigned to look like types of trees that are significant to Wabanaki people as well, Sockabasin said. For example, one will look like a birch tree, which is used to make canoes.
In addition, the center also will have a cave with re-creations of petroglyphs — pictures carved into rocks — made long ago by Indigenous people of Maine.
"These petroglyphs exist all across Maine," she told the Bangor news source. "Many of these sites are protected and we want to protect those petroglyphs, but they're the stories of our ancestors, and we want to share them too."
Tribal Officials Hope Work Can Begin By May 2025
The $6.5 million project will be built in stages as the money is raised, Sockabasin said. Her organization has secured more than $2 million — roughly a third of what it needs for the project through grants and individual donations.
WPHW officials have the center's finished designs in hand and hope to choose a contractor to begin renovating the Central Street building by May 2025, according to Tom Martin Jr., the nonprofit's director of business innovations, although a precise timeline for doing so is still unclear, he said.
A space for the after-school youth program, additional bathrooms and the commercial kitchen will be the first elements of the center to be finished, according to Sockabasin. If all goes to plan, construction on those portions of the space will likely wrap up before the end of 2025.
The center will likely not be finished until the end of 2026, she said.
Throughout the building's remodeling, the organization also will continue to share the space with local groups who would like to hold a performance or need meeting space while the center is being developed.
For example, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra has already held concerts in the space and will perform there again in spring 2025, Sockabasin noted.
"We don't look at this as our space," she said. "We look at it as the collective community space that it really should be, right in the heart of downtown Bangor. No matter if you have a house or not, a job or not, a name or not, you are welcome here."
Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness, a nonprofit organization that serves the four federally recognized tribes in Maine (the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Nation), is already a tenant of Sky Villa's at One Merchants Plaza in downtown Bangor.
