2010 marked the third-annual Sustainable Island Living (SIL) conference hosted by the Island Institute. This year’s theme, “Island to Island,” focused on bringing active members of island communities from other parts of North America to the Maine coast. Keynote speaker Woody Tasch, founder of Slow Money, offered the suggestion that islands can set examples worthy of the attention of the wider world. Karen Willis Amspacher of Harker’s Island, NC shared touching stories of family property bought for a song by folks who don’t care. John Davis, formerly the superintendent of schools for the Bering Strait School District in Alaska, related experiences working to improve educational opportunities in a region the size of Minnesota with roughly 1800 students scattered over 15 villages. Others from coastal states and provinces brought their knowledge and insight and left, we hope, with a connection to Maine that will endure.
However, the SIL conference wasn’t the only time this week when islanders had cause to get together. On Thursday, November 4th, a bunch of us sat around a table sharing needs and concerns regarding the Maine State Ferry Service. On Friday, many of the same people, and a few others, sat around a table and shared some needs and concerns regarding electricity issues, wind energy projects, and our small power companies at an Island Institute-sponsored energy conference. Also on Friday, three blocks away, some of the same people and a few others, including area legislators, assembled around another table at the quarterly meeting of the Maine Islands Coalition. We discussed the needs and concerns the islands have regarding public safety and police presence, or lack of the same (imagine me running back and forth between those two meetings). On Saturday, many of the same people, and a few others, sat around tables all over Rockland sharing the needs and concerns of islands not only in Maine but in North Carolina, Alaska, Oregon, Rhode Island and even Canada regarding small businesses, our relatively tiny school systems and other issues of community sustainability.
On Sunday morning we paced around and worried about the weather.
We share that most basic of islander realties: the awareness that we live at the mercy of nature. We can’t get across the water if the wind blows too hard, if the rain comes too soon, if the seas are too high or the fog sets in. Early that morning I called the flying service, hoping someone would be there to answer the phone. Monhegan friends realized that the Monday mail boat likely would not run; they considered the expensive reality of being stuck on the mainland again. Folks headed for Vinalhaven wondered if they really wanted to be on that ferry if they didn’t have to be. Some left the conference early out of necessity, to be sure and get home and back to work. The weather was going “downhill fast.” Island life is never as simple as it’s reputed to be. Who understands this better than other islanders?
Island residents truly do have an uncommon kinship.
A few comments heard around the conference might help to describe our shared experience, as those who attended were, for the most part, people who work on the islands, people who take on responsibility and the stress that comes with it. This was not a gathering of idle vacationers and relaxed retirees. From Alton Ballance, “You know what it is to live on the edge.” From Rob Snyder, concerning the visitors to Maine from the islands farther away, (“They also) …have arrows in their backs from being leaders on their islands.” From an Isle au Haut school board member, “Students, when they come from an island, are more able to adapt…They’ve dealt with grown-up issues.” Overheard on Main Street as participants walked between meeting venues, “So are you gettin’ flack for what you’re doing out there?” “Oh, yeah” responded the Casco Bay islander, with a sigh.
After several days of serious business, heartfelt storytelling, utilities and economics discussions, and educational networking, SIL Conference attendees were treated to an evening on a lighter note. Institute Executive Vice President Rob Snyder hosted a panel session with a few questions on the tongue-in-cheek side (for example, Snyder somehow got Speaker of the House and North Haven native Hannah Pingree to describe the very small and undoubtedly quirky high school dances of her own teenage years). We wrapped up Saturday with a concert at the Strand Theater by The Free Seedlings, a wonderful bluegrass trio from Islesboro. One of their songs, written by Bennett Konesni, is entitled “An Uncommon Kinship.” That title sums up perfectly the purpose for this conference, the reality of our lives, and the future of much of our work…islanders connecting with other islanders. If it is we who best understand, perhaps we can offer each other a bit our strength.
Eva Murray is a freelance writer who lives on Matinicus.