The Aquinnah Cultural Center is beginning a new chapter of growth — one that starts in the soil.
The organization has been managing a garden at Stillpoint in West Tisbury, which includes the rediscovered Aquinnah bean, as well as tending a food forest behind the Aquinnah town hall. Recently, another plot was added to its agricultural repertoire, this time at Island Grown Initiative’s community garden.
The farming efforts are aimed at refamiliarizing members of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe with ancestral crops.
“If more people can learn how to live more locally, more land based, then we think that’s best for our land overall,” said NaDaizja Bolling, executive director at the Aquinnah Cultural Center (ACC).
The plot at Island Grown Initiative (IGI) has included an array of rotating crops since mid-May. The harvest varies from white flint corn to Seneca sunflowers, strawberry popcorn, sugar baby watermelons, crookneck squash, blue hubbards, little people clamshell beans and true red cranberry beans.
Emily Armstrong, education director for IGI, said the idea arose from a developing relationship between the two organizations after tribe member Brad Lopes led staff trainings at IGI.
“Brad put together this training, and it was a lot of these aha moments of how do you transcend the land acknowledgments to actually make commitments?” Ms. Armstrong recalled. “One thing we identified was land access.”
In the spring, farmers at IGI laid out a tarp to kill the weeds, and after a final tilling, the plot was turned over to the ACC for members to plant and maintain the crops themselves.
Having access to growing spaces is a significant step forward for the organization, said Tysonnae Aiguier-Bolling, the ACC’s tribal programs and community engagement manager.
“Part of what we do is preservation, and I think the only way to truly preserve our culture is to practice it,” she said. “For many reasons, a lot of us haven’t been able to do that, mostly being land and space access. Us having that now, especially with the farms and large gardens, we’re able to bring that element back.”
“Everyone has something that they’ve been able to bring and contribute, but also learn,” added Ms. Aiguier-Bolling. “I think it’s helping us really activate our living culture.”
Foodways have always played a significant role in Wampanoag culture, Ms. Aiguier-Bolling said, and this opportunity has allowed the tribe to reconnect with land they were historically severed from.
“It made me recognize how important food sovereignty is as a part of the broader land back movement and what that means for indigenous communities,” she said.
Ms. Armstrong said the team at IGI is dedicated to deepening their partnership with the tribe and providing resources where they can.
“We’re still working on developing what those commitments will be, but the idea is that we are going to move past just making a blanket statement, and work on making actual commitments,” she said.
This article appears in August 28, 2026.