From my apartment door, I see a blue sky hovering over the tin roof of the neighboring house. I see the blended tops of coconut trees standing so close, their palms so intertwined, that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the next begins. I see lined telephone poles and a busy road down to my right, the bus stop and grocery store across the street, and wild chickens running around below. They almost always seem to be in a hurry, but I never know where they’re going.
According to reports by UN Women, one in three women has experienced some form of sexual or physical violence. Violence against women and girls happens in many different contexts, including times of both peace and conflict, natural disasters, humanitarian crises, and pandemics. It can happen within the family or community, or outside in broader society.
November 25 is the International Day to Eliminate Violence against Women. Violence in all of its forms, whether physical, psychological, sexual, or economic, against women and girls, are violations of human rights. Indigenous women are particularly vulnerable for two factors: ethnicity and gender. In response, more and more Indigenous women are organizing around the world to fight against violence.
Long before the arrival of the settlers, the land which we call Turtle Island was bountiful of rich foods, clean water, and a vast amount of biodiversity. Cornfields wrapped around the coastline for miles, schools of fish swam so thick, and trees were so healthy they produced many nuts and fruits. Our ancestors celebrated thanksgiving about 13 times a year. In the Northeast, the first thanksgiving is the Strawberry Thanksgiving as it is the first berry of the season.
With Native American Heritage Month well underway and Thanksgiving/National Day of Mourning occurring tomorrow, it is an excellent time to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ brilliance, honor and acknowledge truth in history, recognize whose land we are on, and work towards true allyship. We call upon our Cultural Survival community to learn from Indigenous Peoples and their true account of this federal holiday, confront settler mythologies of this country's history, understand how American colonialism and imperialism continue to impact Indigenous communities today, and to ta
The two-week 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP27) held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, came to a close on November 19, 2022. Cultural Survival’s Indigenous delegation of six was on the ground reporting directly on the most important issues concerning the climate negotiations and the implications for the rights and futures of Indigenous Peoples.
COP27, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt | 18 November 2022
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.