This Thanksgiving, Acknowledge the Territories

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

I was recently reminded of something I wrote for Canadian Thanksgiving called: Happy Thanksgiving White Supremacy! With U.S. thanksgiving rolling around, I was thinking about how I think it is really important to acknowledge that many of us are settlers living on stolen native land. Instead of praying before dinner (since I make house with lots of gaylords and perverts and we aren’t really the god fearing type) I am going to take some time to acknowledge the territories.

Acknowledging the territories is a way to take accountability for the part you play in colonization while also making it a visible as a historical (and contemporary) process. It can be as simple as this (play with it though, make it your own!): “Before we eat I just want to say that I am very privileged to work, live, and play here on unceded Lekwungen (or Songhees) territory and I do my best to conduct myself respectfully in my time here. I encourage everyone here to acknowledge the colonial history of this land as well as those who were here before us whose histories were erased in the process of colonization”

You will likely have to do research for this, which isn’t that big of a deal. I mean, remember that this shit wasn’t included in history to ensure complicity and making colonization visible for yourself and those around you is really fucking bad ass and important. I used this website and also used the facebook group `home on native land postal campaign - a decolonizing effort` check them out, and even do a google search. I also used wikipedia. If you feel frustrated about the time that this takes, think about how history functions in a way that makes only certain stories visible (i.e. ones that benefit the growth and strength of the Canadian and U.S. nations). Then please remember that the history and stories that colonization hides involve the destructive genocide of native people and in this process millions of lives, families and entire cultures were literally erased.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving. I hope that you can embrace your inner hungry virgin and give thanks for those in your life while also remembering that thanksgiving is a holiday that was born from colonization. Acknowledging the territories can`t change that, but it can make the history (and continued legacy) of colonization and the land we live on more and more visible for people who have not had access to this information.

with love and solidarity,

Majestic