Read here the Land Acknowledgement, approved by Friends Meeting at Cambridge in Meeting for Business in Worship February 13, 2022.
The first step was to begin to build relationship with the Wampanoag Tribe by learning about and supporting their internationally recognized language reclamation work. We invited the whole Meeting to a Zoom program about this. Those who came participated in a deep and inspiring conversation with one of the leaders after watching “We Still Live Here.” After the movie, staff from Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project shared with us, answer questions and describe current progress. For self-education, you are invited to check out the Project website and/or read news stories about Wampanoags here.
We also had a First Day School program this year walking the Longfellow Park and talking about what it was like before Europeans arrived. We learned the proper name of the Quinnobequin (not Charles) River and practiced saying it.
Many of our members and the Clerks on behalf of the Meeting wrote letters this year in support of the important bills currently introduced into the Massachusetts legislature to establish Indigenous People’s Day, get rid of “Indian” mascots in schools, include Indigenous history in Massachusetts standard curriculum requirement
On June 4, we presented the forum Worship Sharing on “Reparative Justice” with Susan Davies, Sandy Sweetnam, Diana Lopez, and Nancy Frost.
Here is the list of resources that was handed out at the forum.
We are hoping many FMC community members attend the Wampanoag Pow Wow in July, including families with children. It is an excellent way to learn and build relationship.
For more information, contact Friends for Racial Justice at forj@fmcquaker.org.
