Maine spends $132,000 of taxpayer cash on group who say state should be renamed DAWNLAND to honor Native Americans and that its place names – including Norway, Paris, Nipple and Old Maid’s Rock – are racist or sexist

Maine officials are coming under fire after handing a $132,000 contract to a racial justice group, ending with a 30-minute webinar on “problematic” place names.

Taxpayers footed the bill for the lecture as part of the state’s commitment to the nonprofit Atlantic Black Box (ABB), which claims that ‘involve the public in the collective rewriting of our regional history.’

In footage from this week’s webinar, ABB founder Meadow Dibble urged attendees to acknowledge the suffering caused by “white settlers” as she rattled off place names that Maine residents should be offended by.

The towns of Norway and Mexico were seen as offensive, “Old Maid Rock” was determined to be sexist, and Maine should be renamed “Dawnland” to represent the original name of the Native American Wabanaki tribe, Dibble argued.

“You could say reading the place names in Maine is like reading a book,” Dibble said. “And some people will tell you it’s a comedy. But if you read these names through the lens of racial equality, this book can read more like a horror novel.”

The seminar also included an Indian representative who claimed that she researches the names of places before traveling and purposefully avoids any place that sounds “suspicious.”

Meadow Dibble, the founder of Atlantic Black Box, used the presentation to comment on the “painful history behind some of these names that normalized white supremacy and violence against BIPOC communities.”

The waking lecture, first reported by The Maine Wirereportedly began with Dibble listing her pronouns as “they/them” before urging attendees to reevaluate “what’s behind the names that are all around us.”

Among the names she objected to were the small island of Nipple, Maine, and the name of Maine itself, which she believed would better fit the Wabanaki tribe’s “Dawnland.”

The host then showed a standard place name sign with the sites replaced with names like “Land Thief Hill,” “Enslaver Lake” and “White Supremacy Hill.”

Certain place names were also believed to ‘objectify or denigrate women, sexualise the landscape or play on the tropes of loose women and witches’ – with ‘Old Maid Rock’ seen as particularly disturbing.

Dibble added that “that’s a topic that deserves its own presentation,” possibly after another taxpayer-funded contract.

She continued, “Once we know what’s behind the names that are all around us, once we can see what’s behind the facade, the question we have to ask ourselves is whether we want to continue to honor them as much .

“Many Wabanaki elders, and many of the knowledge keepers in Maine’s multi-generational Black families, are aware of the painful history behind some of these names that normalized white supremacy and violence against BIPOC communities.

“And we know that repeated, constant exposure is harmful.”

The webinar called for an end to the use of alphanumeric codes for certain locations in Northern Maine, which were determined to be cited only for “resource exploitation.”

“Maine is full of the soulless measuring devices that served to distribute land to timber barons. And I just want to compare the numerical names designed to facilitate resource extraction with Dawnland,” Dibble said.

The small island of Nipple, Maine (pictured) reportedly came under fire during the woke presentation

Dibble also took issue with Maine counties named after America’s Founding Fathers, including Washington, Hancock and Franklin counties.

“Franklin County is named after founder Benjamin Franklin, who actively participated in the slave trade and was a slave trader before becoming an abolitionist,” she said.

The webinar was reportedly the end result of ABB’s $132,000 contract with the state, as Maine says in its government website is intended to “undertake the crucial work of examining and accounting for our region’s complicity in the slave trade.”

The slideshow then saw others interject to share their struggles with Maine’s place names, with Maine State Geologist Steve Dickson noting that in his work he has to use “offensive” maps that reflect old locations before they were renamed.

Native American activist and federal Wilderness Society member Jessica Lambert also spoke out about the direct harm the “offensive” names are having on her, as she claims she is unable to travel to certain places.

“When you change the name from a name that honors to a name that denigrates people, that is racist, that is derogatory, you change that space,” Lambert said.

Native American activist and federal Wilderness Society member Jessica Lambert (pictured) spoke about the direct harm the “offensive” names have on her, saying, “I’ll often look on Google Maps and see a name that I’m like “that’s suspicious”

“You’re tipping the balance of power, and I know as an Indigenous person and when I go out a lot, I’ll look on Google Maps and see a name that I look like that’s suspicious or oh, that’s derogatory.

‘And I don’t want to go there. I don’t feel comfortable going there.’

The webinar reportedly concluded with a discussion about a piece of upcoming state legislation that would create a State Names Authority, a move to replace names of sites the commission finds offensive.

The bill, which will be voted on Jan. 23, would also stipulate that in the future, members of the State Names Authority must include one Black person and one Native American person.