Kaufman Updates
Permanent link for Grappling with Thanksgiving, by Liz English, Kaufman Program Coordinator on November 14, 2023
While we enter into this season of thanksgiving, it’s important to be cognizant of the various perspectives and often harmful mythologies that color this time of year for many of our neighbors. For some, this is a peaceful holiday of gathering and giving, a time to surrounding oneself with loved ones; for others, it is a reminder of the painful reality and lingering effects of settler colonialism, and is seen and deeply felt as a day of mourning and loss. With these two stories at loggerheads, we’re left with a tradition that requires reimagining.
The Nuns & Nones Land Justice Project is a national interfaith organization focused on land protection, regeneration, and the expansion of land equity to marginalized and dispossessed communities. In line with this work, they are also naming and wrestling with these juxtaposed perspectives of this season while working with indigenous leaders to find solutions and work toward repair. Their upcoming webinar “Healing this Broken Land: Indigenous Leadership in the Face of Climate Crisis”,taking place next Sunday, November 19th from 4:30-6:30 EST, is a part of their “Rethinking Thanksgiving” initiative. The discussion will be led by Indigenous organizers and non-Native comrades who are cultivating strategies and radical approaches in the struggle toward decolonization, resilience, and repair.
A reminder to be grateful to those in our lives who provide us with peace, with wisdom, and with love will always be welcome. But we must also use this time of reflection to repair those relationships, with our neighbors and with the land, that are strained or broken.
Liz English
