On Friday, October 1st, our community gathered for “Listening Deeply: Indigenous Voices,” a panel discussion which aimed to educate our community in preparation for Indigenous Peoples Day on October 11. The event took place at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire in Housatonic, from 6-8pm in-person and on Zoom. Shawn Stevens, Jake Singer, Bonney Hartley from the Mohican Cultural Affairs Office, and Carol Dana, a Penobscot Language Master, were invited to speak on the panel. I was honored to join Lev Natan in sharing opening remarks in service of centering the intention of the listening audience (see below). Read “Great Barrington to Replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day” in The Berkshire Eagle.
Thank you, Lev, for my introduction and for your invitation to partner on this event this evening and the entire series of events in honor of the Indigenous People’s heritage and legacy. I am Gwendolyn VanSant, a Great Barrington resident, member of the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire where we are all gathered this evening. I’m also CEO and Founding Director of BRIDGE and Vice Chair of the Town of Great Barrington’s Du Bois Legacy Committee alongside Chair Randy Weinstein who is in the audience today.
I first want to share how deeply honored I am to participate in this festival and to have Lev carry the torch forward for our local community. Years ago, very similar to the personal story Lev just shared, I prayed, participated, and was guided with prayer man James Etsity of the Navaho Nation in dozens of prayer ceremonies in Berkshire County in circles, sweat lodges, and fire and water ceremonies alongside Susan Jameson and Fidel Moreno. It was through this healing work that I was able to embark on my own journey of healing from a troubling time in my life into the life that brought me many beautiful seeds including my life partner, Sam, and the vision of BRIDGE. For that reason I know firsthand, as Lev previously testified, how connecting with the Indigenous wisdom and healing and being in connection to each other can heal us deeply and generationally. So again, this is a truly meaningful gathering for me, and I look forward to this evening. Thank you again, Lev, for picking up the torch for Great Barrington’s Indigenous People’s Day.
As our convener, Lev asked me to share the story about how Randy and I, on behalf of the W.E.B Du Bois Legacy Committee, chose to create the Indigenous Peoples’ Day Proclamation for Great Barrington in 2019 as well as why this is something that I personally felt was important for BRIDGE to support and help make happen. In my role as Vice Chair of W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee, Randy approached me asking if I felt it was a proper advocacy point of the Committee to support Indigenous People’s Day. Our Town’s Selectboard had been quite supportive of our Du Bois work and, in my view, this aligned with our understanding of our charge as a committee to promote economic justice, race equity, education, and civil rights. As we honor Du Bois’ legacy and carry the torch of the generations of scholars and activists uplifting his work, we would be remiss to not honor the land we are on and its history, its people, and current connections. When we drafted the Proclamation and presented it to the town leaders and our community with Steve Goodman, the vote was unanimous!
As Director of BRIDGE, it is simple: we are committed to activating for justice and equity in our community. Our campaign towards racial justice and equity in the Berkshires began in 2009 and engages community members who want to effectively create a coalition of activists, leaders, community members and allies dedicated to race equity in our community. We focus on safety, trust, and belonging. To join in this work is not a choice, but an imperative.
Lev also asked me to share my vision moving forward, in regards to building solidarity between and among all BIPOC communities, with white allies alongside, here in the Berkshires as well as all around the Northeast bioregion and throughout the country. First, let me quote Rev. Barber from his book, the Third Reconstruction. He has put a call to action to all of us that echoes Civil Rights leaders like Dr. King. He implores us to remember we can only afford to show up together to fight white supremacy and work towards justice, equity, and a happy healthy planet, Mother Earth, and all of its inhabitants.
“In a fusion coalition, our most directly affected members would always speak to the issue closest to their own hearts. But they would never speak alone. When workers spoke up for the right to organize and engage in collective bargaining, the civil rights community would be there with them. And when civil rights leaders petitioned for the expansion of voting rights for people of color, white workers would stand with them. ”
“Only a fusion coalition representing all the people in any place could push a moral agenda over and against the interests of the powerful. But such coalitions are never possible without radical patience and stubborn persistence. ”
― William J. Barber II, The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement
Recognizing our interconnectedness is the only path forward where we understand that our health and healing is dependent on our neighbor’s health and healing.
This is one of the covenants I have learned and taught as a Unitarian Universalist and UU religious education leader and in our racial justice organizing at BRIDGE: we are all part of the interconnected web of life, each with our own unique dignity and worth... each and every one of us in our collective humanity.
Lev asked me specifically about white allies and their role in this coalition work, and the healing vision he is sharing with us. At BRIDGE, we teach about the role of whiteness, white supremacy, and the colonial mindset in our day-to-day. We examine its damaging impact and ripples of harm for generations. We demonstrate, with an invitation to embodied action, how the white ally and accomplice can shift the resources of their time and energy to dismantling oppressive structures in our culture, all the while simultaneously unraveling their own socialization into whiteness. And this evening, I want to remind these allies to ask questions of yourselves and others. Be curious, align yourself with those voices most marginalized in our communities, amplify their voices within your sphere of influence, acknowledge the healing to be done, and activate together to build a more resilient, healthy, and safe community where all can thrive.
To close, Indigenous People’s Day and its origin story will be shared this evening. For me, these discussions present us with an opportunity to own the authentic history of these lands and to acknowledge the stories and lives of those muted or pushed to the side. This should be an everyday practice. The acknowledgement of Indigenous peoples should be a way of life and as ritualistic as the pledge of allegiance and national anthem to every American.
I am also honored to have our esteemed panel here today. I am here to listen and learn from you on climate resilience and climate justice rooted in your indigenous wisdom. Another role BRIDGE has played for the Town of Great Barrington this past year and will play in the year to come is to convene around climate resilience and build strategies rooted in listening deeply to an intergenerational group of community members with youth leaders, municipal employees, and volunteers through community dialogue and education.
I want to thank everyone for coming and engaging with us as we build community together by listening deeply with our hearts.
As Maya Angelou said, "I would encourage us all, African Americans, Asians, Latinos, Whites, Native Americans to study history. I long for the time when all the human history is taught as one history. I am stronger because you are stronger. I am weaker if you are weak. So we are more alike than we are unlike."
Great Barrington Community to Observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Four events highlight community, education, ceremony, and integration. Drumming, traditional Native American songs, speeches, and a procession culminating in a ceremonial blessing of the Housatonic River will mark the local observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Great Barrington on Monday, October 11, 2021.
This will be the centerpiece of a four-event program organized by Alliance for a Viable Future, a local grass-roots organization. The aim is to acknowledge and heal the wounds of our past, honor the Native American ethic of respect and care for the natural world, and integrate indigenous values into our response to climate change, according to Lev Natan, organizer and founding director of the Alliance.
“The commemoration is inspired, in part, by Randy Weinstein and Gwendolyn VanSant of the W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee, who, in 2019, asked the Town of Great Barrington to join a growing movement of towns, cities and states around the country who are recognizing the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” said Natan.