newsletter

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a counter-celebration to the federal holiday of Columbus Day. This is a day that is meant to honor and celebrate Indigenous Peoples and their histories and cultures and also acknowledge the harm done to those communities and the work that still needs to be done to make things right. Some ways to honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day today might be: Learn whose land you’re on. Native-land.ca is a great resource for this! Buy from Indigenous-owned businesses. Read Indigenous authors, especially those whose books are being banned. Teach your kids the truth about colonialism. Listen to Indigenous voices. Donate to organizations focused on or led by Indigenous communities. For example: the Native American Rights Fund, the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, or the National Indian Child Welfare Association. I’ll close with a poem by Indigenous former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo:

Remember
Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the strongest point of time.
Remember sundown and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled to give you form and breath.
You are evidence of her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth, brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too.
Talk to them, listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice.
She knows the origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people are you.
Remember you are this universe and this universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.