Island Fellow Carly Knight is fascinated by the relationships of community, language and culture, and even as a college student, she had an affinity for islands. So it comes as no surprise that, as a senior working toward a degree in anthropology at Bowdoin College, she undertook a year-long independent study project, titled “The Wind Comes in a Sudden Way” to learn how Maine lobstermen and ferryboat captains on Cliff Island acquired and talked about their knowledge of changing weather patterns and environmental indicators.
While a student at Bowdoin, Knight also had the opportunity to make several trips to the Canadian Arctic to study Inuit culture in Nunavut, Cape Dorset on ice-bound Baffin Island and in Labrador. On those trips, she stayed with Inuit host families while researching Inuit place names to document oral environmental knowledge. That experience, she says, “opened me up to adapting to other cultures. In anthropology, you study `the Other.’ In these Inuit communities, I was `the Other.'”
When her Bowdoin anthropology professor, Anne Henshaw, suggested the Island Fellows program as a possibility following graduation, Knight applied, and was selected to work on Chebeague Island with the local historical society and its Museum of Chebeague History. She is currently serving a second year as the first James and Joanne Cooney Fellow — one of four fellowships endowed to date through the Island Institute’s capital campaign.
Working with the Chebeague Island Historical Society, Knight finds herself poised between the island’s rich history and its history-in-the-making as Chebeague prepares for its official independence from the mainland town of Cumberland. “It’s been a great balance,” she says. “On the one hand, I am working on a daily basis with material culture from the island’s history and learning how the community has adapted to change in the past. On the other hand, I have been fortunate to live on the island as Chebeague begins the next major transition in its history.”
Her work with the historical society has been guided by her advisor Donna Damon, a local historian, Cumberland Town Councilor and Island Institute trustee. “Donna’s knowledge of the history of the island, and of the museum’s collections, is just amazing,” Knight says. She has also benefited from the guidance of Chebeague resident Jane Frizzell, a member of the history museum’s board.
In her year and a half on Chebeague, Knight has helped design museum exhibits, researched family histories for residents curious about their island ancestors, catalogued thousands of photographs, newspaper articles, and artifacts donated to the museum over the years, and created a searchable website tied to the newly catalogued collections. She applied for and received a grant from the Maine State Archives to hire a consultant to evaluate the museum’s storage facilities and recommend ways to improve environmental controls to protect the collection.
Currently, she is working on this summer’s exhibit, an exploration of the historical importance of the island’s school. “I’m working with a group of island volunteers who put in tons of time to get this together,” says Knight. “This year’s exhibit is really timely, since it was the desire to keep our school that drove Chebeague’s secession effort.”
Like other Island Fellows, Knight’s job doesn’t stop with her official duties. To alleviate the isolation of working alone in the museum during the winter months, when few visitors come through the doors, Knight has volunteered at Chebeague’s recreation center one afternoon a week, organizing and coaching a soccer team that played two inter-island matches with kids from Long Island. “Most island kids don’t have a chance to play team sports until they go to the mainland in sixth grade, and by then they are far behind their mainland classmates,” she says. “Playing sports was a great outlet for me as a kid, and it was fun to give the island students the chance to participate.” Knight also has completed First Responder training, and is pursuing EMT certification to she can be part of the Chebeague rescue team, which needed new members.
For Knight, island life has provided a glimpse “of the special closeness that’s hard to find in places that are not bound by water.” While she has not decided on her plans when her fellowship ends late this summer, one thing is certain. “No matter where I wind up, the pace of life on Chebeague, and the sense of place and community I’ve found here, will always stay with me.”
Kathy Westra is the Island Institute’s director of communications.