Elżbieta M. Goździak, is reflecting on being thankful.... 🇺🇸
This past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving in the United States. The US is not the only country where Thanksgiving is celebrated. Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November also in Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany.
The "First Thanksgiving"
In the United States, the "First Thanksgiving" is often portrayed as a friendly harvest celebration where Pilgrims and generic, nameless Indians came together to eat and give thanks. This story is a myth that was sparked in the mid-1800s when English accounts of the 1621 harvest event resurfaced and fueled the American imagination.
Pushing back against the holiday's 'mythology'
Many Native Americans are pushing back against the Thanksgiving holiday. Native leaders say they obviously do not have anything against people sitting down to a nice meal with their families and friends, and giving thanks. However, they do object to the myth that omits a painful history of relationships between Native Americans and white colonists, who brought diseases, stole their land, and killed many native people, including children. For 50+ years native groups have been organizing a Day of Mourning that serves as "a day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as a protest against the racism and oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience worldwide."
Giving thanks
The National Museum of American Indians (NMAI) emphasizes that giving thanks is a longstanding, central tradition among Indigenous peoples that is still practiced today. Native traditions are distinct, complex, and specific to each individual nation, the museum staff say. They suggest that teachers read and discuss the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address with their students. The Museum also provides a list of children's books centered around traditions of gratitude and/or seasonal harvests from different Native cultures. I think this advice might go a long way towards a paradigm shift in how future generations of Americans think about Thanksgiving.
Personally, I like setting aside a day in my busy schedule to think about what I am thankful for. As a refugee, I am thankful for the safe haven that my adopted country accorded me when life in my homeland was politically untenable. As a scholar, I am thankful to my professional colleagues in many countries of the world, including but not limited to the United States, Poland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Thailand, and Nepal. As a former editor of a migration journal, I am grafeful to the authors who entrusted me their manuscripts and the reviewers who made sure the articles were of highest quality. And last but not least, I am thankful to the numerous migrants and survivors of human trafficking who spent hours with me sharing their stories.
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