“400 Years: Truth & Healing for the Next Seven Generations”
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18
2:00-4:00 pm
This online program, on YouTube and Facebook, is a partnership between Interfaith Opportunities Network, Interfaith Council of Franklin County, over 20 faith communities, peace & justice groups across the valley, and Indigenous leaders in our region. We will be listening to presentations on the experience and perspectives of a number of our Native neighbors in the region – along with music, interfaith prayers and ways that faith communities can act in solidarity with Native-led efforts for rights, respect, and land.
Details on this project can be found at: interfaithamherst.org/400-years. The Facebook invitation from Interfaith Council of Franklin County is at: facebook.com/allarewelcomeatthistable. We are raising funds for four Native-led projects for cultural preservation and restoration of land as a first step towards repair and restorative justice towards the Native peoples of our region whose stolen lands all of us are living on.
Walking to Unity Park: On the three preceding days (October 15-17) monks of the New England Peace Pagoda are leading a three-day walk “Listening to the Call of the Great Spirit” from the Sojourner Truth Memorial in Florence, past faith congregations in Northampton, Hadley, Amherst, Leverett, Montague, and Greenfield ending at Unity Park in Turners Falls.
Preparing for October 18: Here are three short YouTube videos on how faith communities contributed to the taking of lands and cultures from Native peoples:
Discovered or Stolen? Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery (6 mins.) from the United Church of Christ
We the People (17 mins.) Navajo Mark Charles’ Ted Talk on how the founding documents of our country were steeped in racism concerning Native and Black peoples here
Doctrine of Discovery (5 mins.) from Haudenosaunee faithkeeper Orlen Lyons