You Are On Indigenous Land

I want to acknowledge that the land that we are on and have been on in North America is the unceded land of the Indigenous people from Turtle Island. The land I live on is Pawtucket land overlapping Massachusett land, sometimes called the Pawtucket at Wamasit. After colonization, it was a praying village known as Shawshin. It is currently commonly known as Billerica, a town in the Shawsheen River Valley in Massachusetts.

The Indigenous Community in the area is active and thriving. Many of us not only have much learning to do about the First Nation peoples of the land where we live, we also have a lot of unlearning to do. There are many ways to start that process (or continue it). Learning is the beginning. Taking action with Indigenous communities is the next step.

Here are a few links to get you started. All these links are starters for you. Nothing is definitive. Please do your own research.

• "Tribal Land Acknowledgements - What They Are and Why We Need to Do Them" by Claudia Fox Tree

• Purchase and Read books by Indigenous authors – do your homework and make sure the person is Indigenous. Just because the book has First Nation People or Indigenous topics doesn’t mean that the author is Indigenous. Childrens’ books; Adult books

• Find a Pow Wow near you and go to it and buy things from the Indigenous Vendors. Learn more here

• Listen to Indigenous podcasts

• Get involved in dismantling colonialism

• Do your own homework about the lands of the Indigenous Nations that you have inhabited in your lifetime – be sure to check multiple sources and work to have those sources be from First Nations

• Create your own land acknowledgement using resources and research

• Be aware of and support current legislation – there are several bills in our Massachusetts House of Representatives right now.

• Educate yourself and increase awareness of the crisis of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two Spirit, Plus

• Read a treaty

• Keep learning and learning and researching and doing and contributing!