NEW GLOUCESTER — A new Malaga Island memorial at Pineland Cemetery marks a dark chapter in Maine’s history while also bringing a measure of closure and helping to shine light on previously unknown family connections.

The memorial tells a story of a “controversial community” of black and white “laborers and fishermen” who married and lived together on Malaga Island off the coast of Phippsburg from the 1860s until they were evicted by the state in 1912.

Some of the evicted islanders were sent to the former Maine School for the Feeble Minded in New Gloucester – where Pineland Farms is today. Others were left searching for a new place to call home. The bodies of deceased Malaga community members who had been buried on the island were exhumed and relocated to the Pineland Cemetery.

The history, documented by the Maine State Museum, continues to ripple through the lives of Malaga Island community descendents today.

Several of those descendents attended the dedication ceremony last week, where they welcomed the memorial as a way of honoring their ancestors and recognizing the struggles they had faced.

“Today, we lift up our family members with this memorial to ensure that their story will be told about who they were properly and with honor,” said Malaga Island community descendent Charmagne Tripp of Connecticut. “We remind the world that they did matter, that they did belong. That they were an innovative and progressive community that deserved, at the very least, to exist.”

Tripp also thanked Gov. Paul LePage, who spoke at the ceremony, for his role in “making real and sustainable efforts towards healing and reparation.”

LePage provided a majority of the funds for the memorial through his contingency fund and was instrumental in the creation of a scholarship fund for Malaga descendents.

“This memorial is way, way long overdue. What happened to the inhabitants of Malaga Island is just a very, very dark day in the history of our state,” LePage said. “And this memorial today only begins to make the healing of that terrible, terrible time.”

According to the Maine State Museum, there had been disputes about who owned Malaga Island. The museum says that the state ruled that Malaga belonged to a Phippsburg family and later bought the island from that family before the eviction in 1912.

“When I heard the story and I went through the museum and the presentation – it just struck me so, so hard that there’s no way that we can let this end this way,” LePage said. “And so for the descendants, on behalf of the people of Maine, our apologies to you and to your families – to your ancestors. And as we move forward, take great pride in knowing that there’s a new day in Maine, and we recognize what your ancestors have gone through, and give them dignity and pride – and give you dignity and pride.”

One of the Malaga Island descendent scholarship recipients is Khamani Harrison, 25, who graduated this spring from the University of Connecticut with a degree in environmental engineering. Harrison said that she had been working full time to make it through school, and that she had “zero options left” when the scholarship came through to support her.

Harrison said that the governor’s “words were well selected” and that the scholarship represents action to back up those words.

Harrison, who spoke during the ceremony, said after after that the monument and acknowledgement has provided an opportunity for her family to reflect on their ancestors and fulfill their purpose moving forward.

“Having your history is so important to your identity,” Harrison explained. “That’s how you find yourself, is searching for those answers.”

That search for answers has not always been an easy one, according to Windham’s Marnie Darling Voter, who said that she’s been able to uncover her family history “little bits” at a time.

Though Darling Voter says she is not technically a Malaga descendent, she is connected through her ancestor Benjamin Darling, a freed slave who owned an island near Malaga. According to the Maine State Museum, Darling’s descendents were likely the first to settle Malaga Island.

Darling Voter said she received push-back from some family members for her efforts to learn more about their black ancestry.

“My father didn’t want to acknowledge it,” Darling Voter said, noting that she “became a pariah at family events” for digging into the past.

In her remarks at the memorial ceremony, Darling Voter began by highlighting the many connections among Darling descendents.

“I want you to raise tour hand if you are descended from Ben – Ben Darling,” she told the crowd. A number of hands went into the air.

Windham Town Councilor Donna Chapman is Darling Voter’s cousin and says she and her family have just recently started to understand more about their connections to Benjamin Darling and Malaga Island.

“We didn’t know,” said Chapman, who brought her grandmother’s bible – stuffed with old press clippings of possible relatives – to the Malaga memorial event.

Chapman said that her grandmother could have known about their heritage, but didn’t share much information and may not have wanted to acknowledge it.

“Fear breeds prejudice,” said Chapman, who placed a rose from her grandmother’s funeral service at the Malaga memorial.

Chapman said she sees this as “a new beginning” and plans to keep connecting and learning more about her new-found ancestors and relatives – and to visit Malaga Island.

Tripp said she hopes the memorial will be instructive moving forward.

“I ask that you burn this moment in your hearts and your souls,” Tripp told the crowd. “Retrieve this moment and act on it, retrieve this moment and do what is just and fair, what is compassionate and humane, and don’t wait a hundred years to do it.”

Matt Junker can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 123 or mjunker@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @MattJunker.

Gov. Paul LePage and others reflect on the new Malaga Island memorial at Pineland Cemetery.

Khamani Harrison with her grandmother Gloria Tripp Harrison at the new Malaga Island memorial. Khamani is a recipient of a Malaga 1912 Scholarship created for Malaga Island community descendents. She graduated from the University of Connecticut this spring.