Khmer Maine Submits Testimony In Favor of L.D. 2007, An Act to Advance Self-Determination for Wabanaki Nations

Dear Senator Carney, Representative Moonen, and members of the Judiciary Committee, 

My name is Marpheen Chann, and I live in Portland. I am writing on behalf of Khmer Maine to testify in support of LD 2007.

Khmer Maine is a nonprofit community organization working to improve the quality of life and the social and economic well-being of Mainers of Cambodian heritage through cultural exchange, community building, and civic engagement. Khmer Maine also partners to support members of Maine’s Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander communities and strives for solidarity with Black and Indigenous communities in Maine.

The Cambodian community knows all too well the long-term impacts and pervasive trauma that genocide and displacement have on survivors of the Cambodian genocide and the intergenerational trauma experienced by the generations that follow. Since arriving in the late 1970s and early 1980s, our population has grown to over 2,500, and we now call towns and cities like Portland, Westbrook, Saco, Biddeford, Sanford, and Augusta home. But to look at resilience and work ethic alone ignores the trauma our community continues to experience and the collective healing that still needs to be achieved. 

We can only imagine the trauma our Indigenous brothers and sisters have experienced here in their homeland. We can only imagine the trauma the Wabanaki tribes and peoples continue to experience as they are denied time and time again their requests for sovereignty and self-determination. 

 We stand in solidarity with the Wabanaki people and ask members of the Judiciary Committee to support L.D. 2007. 

On behalf of the Khmer Maine community, thank you. 

Sincerely,

Marpheen Chann

President of Khmer Maine