November 25, 2021
Resources to Reflect on this Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving always makes us feel a little weird. Especially, as a brand who is deeply intertwined with Indigenous communities and cultures in Latin America. To honor a holiday that celebrates the erasure of Indigenous peoples in our own country is inherently against our values.
Instead of our usual Studio Notes this month we asked our Social Equity and Impact Advisor, Manpreet Kalra, to help us share a list of resources to reflect on this Thanksgiving. We hope you find this useful and that it might help you navigate any tough conversations around your table this year.
By Manpreet Kalra
This list has been curated by Social Impact + Enquiry Advisor Manpreet Kalra in Collaboration with Indigenous + Black Educators
Books:
- An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the US by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
- Not a Nation of Immigrants by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
- Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum
- Neither Settler Nor Native by Mahmood Mamdani
Explore:
- Thanksgiving: A Day of Mourning Explained - Resources Curated by Diné Aesthetics
- Thanksgiving or Thankstaking? - Art of Citizenry Podcast Episode 9
- Resources Curated by Tomaquag Museum
- Truthsgiving: The True History of Thanksgiving
- Decolonizing Thanksgiving: A Toolkit for Combatting Racism in Schools
- CNN Visits Tribe for National Day of Mourning
- Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe welcomed Pilgrims, but loses land on eve of Thanksgiving
- A Collection of Treaties published by the Oklahoma State University
- The Henceforeward Podcast - Exploring relationships between Indigenous Peoples and Black Peoples on Turtle Island
Organizations to Redistribute to:
Pay Your Land Tax: Most Indigenous communities offer the opportunity to those who reside on their land to pay land tax. If you don’t know the name of your local tribe, use tools such as https://native-land.ca/ to look it up.
Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous-centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. They also happen to be our neighbors! With deep reverence for the land and wisdom of their ancestors, they work to reclaim the collective right to belong to the earth and to have agency in the food system. They bring diverse communities together to share skills on sustainable agriculture, natural building, spiritual activism, health, and environmental justice.
Black Farmer Fund: The mission of Black Farmer Fund is to create a thriving, resilient, and equitable food system by investing in black food systems entrepreneurs and communities in New York. The Black Farmer Fund will also serve as a bridge for black communities to participate in creating a food system that benefits those within and outside of black communities. We are defining wealth beyond financial and intellectual capital to include social capital and ancestral wisdom, to mitigate against climate change, exercise governance, strengthen solidarity, and preserve cultural and ancestral ways of being.
The Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT), an initiative of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, is the vehicle by which the Amah Mutsun access, protect, and steward lands that are integral to our identity and culture. The AMLT returns our tribe to our ancestral lands and restores our role as environmental stewards. Due to our difficult history and generations of physical, mental, and political abuses, our land stewardship practices were disrupted, and much of our culture was lost. AMLT serves not only in the re-learning of our history and restoration of indigenous management practices, it also serves as a vehicle for healing. By restoring our traditional ecological knowledge and revitalizing our relationship to Mother Earth, we also restore balance and harmony to the lands of our ancestors.
DIGDEEP Navajo Water Project: More than 40% of Navajo families don’t have clean, running water, right here in the United States. DIGDEEP is working across the Navajo Nation, where families living below the poverty line are forced to buy expensive bottled water or haul dirty water from ponds and livestock throughs up to 50 miles away. We’re developing new water sources, outfitting delivery trucks, and installing hot and cold running water in homes - making people happier, healthier and more equal. Because no American should struggle to live without clean, running water.
The Chapter House provides a virtual space for Indigenous Peoples and allies to appreciate art, convene and collaborate, celebrate individual and shared Indigenous cultures, and explore the complexities of the 21st Century Indigenous experience.
