Population 3,253 Documenting events in the life of a small town, Shelter Island, NY. A Black Lives Matter rally organized by graduating high schoolers... A Covid pop-up for seniors vaccinates the most people on the east end at one event...a reckoning on slavery and Native American destruction in the form of an archeological survey done in in partnership with the peoples harmed, oyster bed restoration helps to restore our bays and water quality....the attempts to begin the healing for the planet and for ourselves.
July 11th. Back to the Bays, a Cornell Cooperative Extension initiative grows oysters on reclaimed shells and plants them in Coecles Harbor with the help of Shelter Islanders. The work is attempting to bring back our once thriving eelgrass and shellfish populations, reclaim our water quality and return our bays to a balanced ecosystem for all. For people, for marine animals, fish, birds, plants, and mammals of all stripes.
July 4th Women's Rights March. Some of the attendees had marched for reproductive rights in 1973! The sisterhood and concerns was palatable, the signs were smart, and the fight will continue.
Sylvester Manor Educational Farm opens its doors to a collaborative survey of the Afro-Indigenous burial grounds, located on its property, with the Shinnecock Nation Graves Protection Warrior Society and Stephen Mrozowski, Ph.D., professor of anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The Manor is a former provisioning plantation. The burial ground contains Native Americans, free Black, and enslaved Black persons.
Shane Weeks of the Shinnecock Nation Graves Protection Warrior Society's opening remarks:
Graduating seniors organize a Black Lives Matter rally in the middle of the pandemic attended by over 800 people. The signs were homemade, sometimes on the back of pizza boxes, and the tears were real.
Shelter Island is accessible only by ferry. The closest vaccination sites where off-island, and often miles away, making it difficult for senior residents. The town requested an on-island pop-up. It became one of the largest vaccination events on the east end of Long Island. All seniors who needed and wanted a shot were given one. No one was turned away. The audio was recored by Julia Brennan, managing editor and publisher of the Shelter Island Gazette.