Thanksgiving or thangstaken?
Reflections on the National Day of Mourning and Indigenous rights
Hi friends,
What are words without action?
You’re fired! I quit! I now pronounce you wife and wife.
Okay, sometimes words make things happen. (These are called performative utterances).
But a lot of the time, words don’t lead to concrete change.
Instead, they show us a vision of the world.
They encode a perspective: certain people matter, certain wants and needs are valid, certain ways of existing are right and proper.
“Our language is the reflection of ourselves”
―César Chávez
Consider how some people are reported as dying, while others are killed.
Same content, different meaning.
Here’s another question of perspective…
What do you call the occasion that the USA marks on the fourth Thursday of November?
I love the All My Relations podcast, with Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation).
In this episode, they explode the myth of the conventional Thanksgiving story, trace its historical origins, and explore what genuine thanksgiving looks like for their communities.
I’ve highlighted some of the stories that particularly moved me, but please check out the full podcast.
All My Relations podcast (with transcript)
The myth of Thanksgiving
”The holiday itself perpetuates this myth that there was this time of courageous pilgrims who came to found this country and they met with happy Indians who fed them and they had this great feast and it was all, you know, kumbaya.”
Paula Peters, educator, activist and tribal council woman from Mashpee Wampanoag, speaks powerfully about how the myth of kumbaya and cranberries is used to cover over the horror of genocide.
National Day of Mourning
In 1970, Wamsutta (Frank) Jones organised a Day of Mourning. As a Wampanoag man, he rejected the Thanksgiving story which tried to gloss over the harm done to his people and dress it up as a joyful celebration.
Un-thanksgiving
Sometimes called un-thanksgiving, the Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony is an event held each year on Alcatraz island to honour Indigenous peoples of the Americas and promote their rights.
Thangstaken
Many Indigenous people around the world, and the communities in solidarity with them, have renamed it #ThangsTaken.
But a new name won’t restore people’s rights or end ongoing injustice.
Words don’t cut it. We need action.
Meaningful land acknowledgements
One of the first things that organisations tend to do when they want to be seen to be working towards justice is to “say a few words.”
All too often, this looks like a hasty land acknowledgement accompanied with zero meaningful action.
It’s not about the words: it’s about action.
One more time: it’s not about the words: it’s about action.
“In David Mamet’s film State and Main, a Hollywood big shot tries to shortchange a set hand by offering him an “associate producer” credit on a movie. A screenwriter overhears the exchange and asks, “What’s an ‘associate producer credit’?” The big shot answers: “It’s what you give your secretary instead of a raise.”
The practice of “land acknowledgment”—preceding a fancy event by naming the Indigenous groups whose slaughter and dispossession cleared the land on which the audience’s canapés are about to be served—is one of the greatest associate-producer credits of all time.
A land acknowledgment is what you give when you have no intention of giving land. It is like a receipt provided by a highway robber, noting all the jewels and gold coins he has stolen.
Maybe it will be useful for an insurance claim? Anyway, you are not getting your jewels back, but now you have documentation” - Graeme Wood
As the brilliant Alex Kapitan writes:
“At its best, land acknowledgment is part of a larger practice of relationship and solidarity; it’s a form of aligning one’s words and actions with one’s values, creating new consciousness and new avenues to materially benefit the lives, well-being, and rights of Indigenous people. At its worst, land acknowledgment reinforces Indigenous erasure, dispossession, and oppression.” (Bold added)
How to ensure your land acknowledgment doesn't perpetuate Oppression.
Action not words
In their excellent guide to land acknowledgment, Native Governance Center advise people to ask: “How am I leaving Indigenous people in a stronger, more empowered place because of this land acknowledgment?”
If the answer is “I’m not”, then you need to go away and take action. Use their brilliant Beyond land acknowledgment resource to get started.
Land back, not land acknowledgement
“Now everyone is really on this land acknowledgment train without thinking about moving beyond the acknowledgment into action because an acknowledgment is like great, and that's fine” says Adrienne Keen, “But […] it's completely empty if it doesn't have action behind it. “
“Land back is not just giving of the physical land back into stewardship of Indigenous hands. But the cultural aspects that come with that, the Indigenous knowledges that come with that, the relationships to the non-human relatives in that land that come with that. It's a shorthand for talking about reestablishing these relationships in communities.”
Moving into right relationship will not happen overnight. But something you can do right now, this second, is to give money.
(Of course, not everyone can afford to give money. Share resources like the ones I’ve linked here, to help other people learn and take action).
Solidarity with all colonised peoples
If we think of colonialism as a past act, we’ve missed the point.
As Movement 4 Black Lives say:
“We remember the Trail of Tears. We remember the Nakba. We remember the more than 11,000 Palestinians, including over 6,000 children, whom we’ve already lost in the cruelest of ways. We remember our own ancestors, invaded or ripped from their homelands and enslaved. Their memory guides us today as we refuse to allow the erasure of Palestinians’ humanity.”
Take action
If you can, please give money directly to Indigenous organisations and individuals.
Donate to any of the amazing organistions listed here (or let me know others I should add).
Please feel free to share other funds. I’ll update and add links.
If you can’t give funds, more and share what you learn, from incredible organisations like:
Native American Rights Fund (NARF)
