When Chelsea came on board and she began to have conversations
with Drew Lopezina about William Abis, who was a very important
author, an Indigenous author that was born in the 1700s and
authored over 200 books and is not recognized in our town.
So Chelsea decided that, you know, creating that relationship
and allowing space for a plaque to be put in, really kind of
standing tall at about four feet in front of the the library's
entrance would be a really nice way to honour and reflect upon
the Indigenous peoples here and contributions that are often
invisible eyes.
Chelsea worked very hard to ensure that there was William
APIs Day in Coleraine and we traveled to the Mashpee
Reservation and spoke to several different leaders from that
community and watched a play that featured 2 acts that
focused on William APIs that day.
She fostered some relationships that really made this year's
William APIs Day so much more genuine.