PROVINCETOWN, MASS.- The Provincetown Community Compact, sponsor of the 35th Provincetown Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla, announced the inclusion of the Native Land Conservancy as a beneficiary of this year’s Swim on September 10.

The Compact has acknowledged the ancient lands of Wampanoag Nation on Cape Cod for many years and is pleased to financially support the important work of the Native Land Conservancy (NLC).

“We are moved and grateful to be included in Swim for Life this year. Supporting one another through community events both brings us closer and makes us stronger” states NLC Director, Diana Ruiz.

Based in Mashpee and operating regionally, its mission is to rescue, protect and help restore land back to its original state wherever possible. The Native Land Conservancy’s all-Indigenous board draws upon collective traditional cultural knowledge with generations of direct experience in the woodlands, coastlines, and waterways of indigenous homelands. Additionally, the Native Land Conservancy works to secure Cultural Respect Easements (CREs) with other land trusts, towns, and landowners to expand Native cultural access to lands for traditional and ceremonial purposes that recreation-based management has historically excluded.

In the words of NLC Founder and Board President Ramona Peters:

“It is historically meaningful that people benefiting from the actions perpetrated by colonists welcome and protect the ceremonial presence of the original people of this continent. Our safety, even on public lands, has not been something we could count on for over three hundred years.”

Indigenous people in the United States were prohibited by law to gather for traditional ceremonies up until 1978. Through an act of Congress, they regained their right to exercise their spiritual practices as they had for millenia. Since 1978 they have sought to return to their traditional sacred sites to resume their ceremonies. The cultural respect easement is one way to perpetuate access.

Beneficiaries of the September 10 Swim include: the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod (ASGCC), Helping Our Women (HOW), Outer Cape Health Services, Provincetown Rescue Squad Association, Lower Cape Ambulance Association, Soup Kitchen in Provincetown (SKIP), Provincetown Schools, The Compact Community Fund, Accessible Provincetown, West End Racing Club, Cape Cod Children’s Place and Native Land Conservancy.