Native American Heritage Month Continues

There’s a lot happening in Massachusetts this month to focus on the importance of Native American heritage month and how we can better support the advancement of equity for Native American communities in Newton and beyond.

November CityWide FORJ Recap

In the Newton FORJ meeting last week, Newton parent and Indigenous Peoples Day (IDP) Newton Committee co-founder Dr. Darlene Flores shared a presentation from the IDP Committee to the Boston Athletic Association (organizers of the Boston Marathon). She spoke about the struggle and pathway to get Indigenous Peoples Day approved in Newton and the process, education, encounters, and community action to make it a reality. From getting the day established on the city and school calendars to the acknowledgement and arrangements to make space for the inaugural Indigenous Peoples Day ceremonial celebration. Indigenous Peoples Day is observed on the 2^nd Monday of October.

Land Acknowledgements

You may hear more Land Acknowledgement announcements at the start of meetings and in materials from organizations as our communities learn more about the history and presence of Indigenous Peoples, making visible the invisible, and to start conversations to revise beliefs, thoughts, words and actions. If you’d like to know more, visit: https://www.mcnaa.org/land-acknowledgement

And, for a map of Indigenous Peoples territories, languages and treaties, see this map from Canadian nonprofit Native Land Digital:

https://native-land.ca/

Upcoming Events

The Committee for Indigenous Peoples Day Wellesley, World of Wellesley, and other community partners will hold a virtual event: Myth Busting Thanksgiving (Wellesley Free Library) – Monday, November 22^nd at 7pm via Zoom

Register here.

From Mass Peace Action: National Day of Mourning on Thursday, November 25^th at 12pm via livestream or in-person: https://masspeaceaction.org/event/2021-national-day-of-mourning-copy/ An annual tradition since 1970, Day of Mourning is a solemn, spiritual and highly political day. If you’ve never heard of this day, read more about it.

FAMILIES ORGANIZING FOR RACIAL JUSTICE (FORJ) is a group of diverse Newton families helping our children learn about issues of power and inequality and how to stand up for racial justice. We seek to generate understanding and curiosity about differences in our society, and to work together towards racial equity.

For more information or to work together to address racial equity in our school and in Newton, please contact L-E FORJ PTO Liaison Lanni Isenberg, lanni_harris@yahoo.com