Williston
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JULY 27, 2023
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
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BLM flag debate renewed Jensen: ‘Flags don’t help, action helps’ BY JASON STARR Observer staff
Seeing the community in Community Park Two children vie for a pop-up whiffle ball at Williston’s Village Community Park last Monday evening. The park is a popular spot in the summer with people taking advantage of the soccer pitches, volleyball courts and other open green spaces. See more photos on page 24. OBSERVER PHOTO BY AL FREY
What to do about the black lives matter flag flying at Town Hall? It’s a question that has lingered since 2021, when the Williston Selectboard originally approved the display with the support of some residents and over the objections of others. Raising the flag was the town’s first acknowledgment of systemic racism and came in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by police that set off a national reckoning. The selectboard initially approved a three-month stint for flag, then extended that in June of 2021 for nine more months. Last spring, the board put off a decision on whether to keep or take down the flag in favor of embarking on a months-long effort — led by the Williston Community Justice Center and a volunteer group called the Williston Racial Equity Partnership — to write a “values statement” committing the town to address systemic racism. When it approved the statement last October, the board also gave the two groups
Pat Brown raises the black lives matter flag at Town Hall in April of 2021. OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
more time to determine how best the values should be visually displayed in town — and whether the black lives matter flag will be part of that. “Flags don’t help, action helps, and leadership action helps,” said Jeanne Jensen, who was elected to the board this year. “Things need to change in this country, and we’re taking a see BLM page 20
Town leans toward acknowledging Abenaki rights, colonial history BY JASON STARR Observer staff The Williston Selectboard is considering adopting a “land acknowledgement” that would honor the presence of the original people on the land that is now the Town of Williston — the Abenaki Nation — and acknowledge the oppressive colonialism of European settlers who arrived in the 18th Century. The statement was presented
to the board earlier this month by the Williston Racial Equity Partnership, which researched similar municipal statements around the country as well as the history of the Abenaki Nation in Vermont. “This is long overdue,” selectboard member Greta D’Agostino said. “This is something our town very much needs to have done and to actively continue to openly acknowledge, that this is land that we have taken. This is very important for our town.”
The discussion mirrors one the board and the racial equity partnership had in adopting a values statement focusing on systemic racism last fall. The board is still considering how best to display and act on that statement (see related story, Page 1). The land acknowledgement, which remains in draft form, reads, in part: “The Town of Williston respectfully acknowledges the history of the land within our boundaries, noting legal town
boundaries are a creation of European colonizers … Williston recognizes that colonialism and the oppression of Native peoples are a current and ongoing process, and we commit to building our collective awareness of ongoing participation and take necessary actions to address the complex issues. “The Abenaki people tended to live along waterways in Williston, such as the Winooski River, Allen Brook, and Muddy Brook,”
it continues. “Higher elavations such as Five Tree Hill and The Lookout in the Catamount Community Forest, were used as lookouts to site herds of caribou or deer.” If adopted, the board will also need to determine how to promote it, said Pat Brown of the racial equity partnership. In some communities, he said, the statement is read before governmental meetings or displayed in town buildings.