As the grandchild of Irish immigrants who fled their homeland during An Gorta Mór (the Great Hunger), I carry with me an awareness of displacement, migration, and the search for belonging. I also acknowledge that I live and work as a guest upon land that has been home to the Wampanoag people for thousands of years—long before the arrival of English settlers on these shores.
This region, known today as Centerville in the town of Barnstable on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is part of the traditional and ancestral territory of the Wampanoag Nation, including the Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribes, whose descendants continue to live, create, and steward these lands and waters.
With humility and gratitude, I honor the Wampanoag peoples’ enduring presence, their cultural traditions, and their deep relationship with the land and sea. I am committed to respecting this heritage and to caring for the resources of this place in the spirit of reciprocity.