Update on the Abenaki Garden and a Road to Courageous Conversation

Abenaki Garden

On August 30, 2025, the Abenaki Three Sisters Garden, on what was once the Quechee Polo Field, had its first open house. This was in part made possible by the Hartford 250th Commemoration Committee and was the first in a series of events that will occur through July 4, 2027. Earl Hatley, visionary and hands-on “in the dirt” manager of the garden, was pleased to report that over one hundred people attended the event, including Hartford select board members, Quechee Lakes Landowners (QLLA) Board representatives, and social justice and environmental groups.

As an enrolled member of Vermont’s Missisquoi band of Abenaki people, Earl wanted more than words to honor the indigenous people of Vermont’s history. Having agricultural expertise in his own “roots,” Earl envisioned the Abenaki Garden. The garden is truly a labor of love. Earl noted that this year woodchucks were munching away and he had to replant several times.

Earl has plans for spring plantings and will expand the garden another twenty feet with pawpaws, plums, and ground nuts. These trees will be surrounded by guild plants. Plant guilds work in a symbiotic relationship with the trees, forming a cooperative ecosystem. Such plants may be pollinators, nitrogen fixers, ground covers, or dynamic accumulators that have deep roots that bring minerals to the soil.

“The more we can grow, the more we can help the need [in the community],” says Earl, who considers the garden a response to food insecurity. The garden is also an educational resource for the surrounding community to learn about Abenaki culture.

In addition, the Abenaki Garden works cooperatively with the Upper Valley Seed Savers (uppervalleyseedsavers.pbworks.com). This is a group of gardeners and farmers working to create a local collection of seeds that would support a year-round food supply. The Upper Valley Seed Savers mission, as stated on their website, is “to save seed of open pollinated vegetables and herb varieties that have regional history, exceptional flavor, good storage capabilities, particular beauty, or are in danger of becoming unavailable commercially, and that contribute to a locally-grown, year-round food supply.”

Certainly the mission of the Upper Valley Seed Savers aligns with the goals of the Abenaki Garden and its volunteers. Presently there are over one hundred volunteers on the Abenaki Garden mailing list. Usually twenty to forty people come to help out on workdays at the garden. The reward for the work is a party and potluck at the end of the day!

Donations and volunteers are always welcome. At the website, AbenakiGarden.org, there is a procedure for joining the list server. There is also a short video that highlights the work of the Abenaki Garden.

Courageous Conversation

Gardens may keep us grounded, as we explore the headier realms of courageous conversations: Beyond the Politics of Contempt: Practical Steps to Build Positive Relationships in Divided Times is a new book by Doug Teschner, Beth Malow, and Becky Robinson. I asked Beth, a QLLA resident, what prompted her to co-write this book. Beth has been an advocate for open dialogue at least since 2017, when she joined Braver Angels, a national non-profit whose goal is to bring Americans together across the partisan divide. Beth and Doug met at a Braver Angels conference in 2023. In response to the question, “Why are you here?” Beth wrote, “I want to engage with like minded people who love this country and want to bridge divides.” Doug wrote, “I am worried that my grandchildren will not experience the benefits of this country that I love.”

However, one attendee’s comment really shook Doug: “I am here because if we don’t change how our politics is done, we’ll see ourselves in another civil war. Except this time it won’t look like Gettysburg – it’ll look like Rwanda.” Having led a U.S. agency for development in Rwanda, Doug knew all too well how scarred that nation was in the aftermath of the Hutu genocide against the Tutsis. Doug notes, “Neighbors killed neighbors, even people they knew well, just because they were in a different tribe. The killers were emboldened by leaders who exploited difference and fear. I remember feeling grateful we didn’t have political tribalism in the United States.” Doug also worked in Guinea during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. He believed then that Americans, like many Guineans, would trust their public health system if a national emergency came. Instead, Doug finds that today Americans are aligned with “political tribes” and that the Covid pandemic “severely tested our ability to communicate with each other.”

From their varied experiences, the authors seek to enable respectful dialogue among people so that no matter the views expressed, everyone may feel heard, respected, and treated with dignity. This is not the same as taking a stand with leaders who need to be held accountable, Beth said. Beth goes on to say, “We want our book to be provocative – get people thinking.”

Beth, a neurologist, enjoys talking with people, coming away from conversations “feeling a palpable sense of hope, almost joy.” In her dialogues, she begins by trying to understand the other person’s viewpoint, to hearing them out. She is being authentically and empathically curious! (Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it has the opposite effect on our brains! According to researchers, our brains get rewarded for being curious. Dopamine, the brain’s reward chemical floods your system, provoking feelings of happiness!)

The authors align with journalist Mónica Guzmán who writes that persuasion “cannot work from shame. It cannot work from attack. It can only work from genuine, often vulnerable, conversations.” (See her book, I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times.)

Meeting others with openness and respect is not easy and is hard work, yet the rewards can be transformative.

One such change occurred with Derek Black, godson of Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. The authors describe how after his white nationalist views became known on his New College of Florida campus, a group of Jewish students invited him to weekly shabbat dinners. He accepted, and returned regularly. Eventually he publicly denounced his views. The Jewish students welcoming him to socialize and eat with them rather than denouncing him with vitriol made all the difference. Manifesting kindness can be difficult but the outcome can be priceless.

Not in the book, but here is another story of transformation by engagement: that of Daryl Davis’s encounters with KKK members. Davis is a Black R&B musician and activist who has confronted racism with conversation and music.

Having studied as much as he could about the KKK, Daryl Davis was able to talk to Klan members over time. In an NPR interview in August, 2017, Daryl said that he could begin “to chip away at their ideology because when two enemies are talking, they’re not fighting. It’s when talking ceases that the ground becomes fertile for violence.” As he would build among commonalities, e.g., music, relationships would form. “As you build trust relationships, you’re forming a friendship. And that’s what would happen. I didn’t convert anybody. They saw the light and converted themselves.”

Not only is non-violent communication a possibility, it is already a reality. Marshall Rosenberg developed Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in the 1960s-’70s. a psychologist, he wanted to reduce conflict and increase empathy in everyday interactions. NVC has been used in many settings – from peace projects, businesses, education, and parenting to mediation, and so on.

A common underpinning of all these modes of communication seems to be an openness and curiosity to hear the other’s viewpoint, and to be a respectful and empathic listener, with the trust that, in the end, we can all be heard – compassionately; and hopefully – find common ground for the common good.

Further Reading:

abenakigarden.org
beyondthepoliticsofcontempt.com
daryldavis.com