An iconic former restaurant at the Aquinnah cliffs, the Aquinnah Shop, is part of a new Wampanoag-led land conservation effort on Martha’s Vineyard.
Guiding the work is the nonprofit Aquinnah Land Initiative, a group founded in 2023 to ensure the three-acre property would remain in Indigenous hands.
Board member Amira Madison said the organization also has a broader mission, “to restore the relationship between Wampanoag people and our ancestral lands.”
Following a meeting earlier this month for the tribal community, the group plans to host its first public-facing meeting Sept. 2. It will address both the Aquinnah Shop and the wider question of how the Land Back movement can inform future land stewardship on the Vineyard.
The goal of the meeting, she said, is “really just to understand … how do people see the land of Martha's Vineyard, or how do they see Land Back and land conservation,” and for the organization to introduce itself to the community.
The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Stillpoint in West Tisbury.
The Native Land Conservancy in Mashpee bought the Aquinnah Shop property last year to avert the risk of development, with the understanding that the Aquinnah Land Initiative would take ownership when the group was able.
The price is expected to be more than $2 million, Madison said.
Another board member, Berta Giles Welch, said that while people are interested to see what will happen with the cliff-side restaurant, the important thing is the land will be kept in Indigenous ownership.
“I think people need to understand, as I have through this process: The importance was that the land was saved — the importance [is] that it remains in Indigenous hands,” she said. “And I think that's what the main focus should be.”
Madison said the Aquinnah Land Initiative hopes to acquire other parcels as well, either through purchase or donation, similar to a land trust.
