Annie Patterson and Charlie King Concert Tonight!

Friend of the Meeting Annie Patterson writes:

Hi friends,

We thought you might really enjoy hearing about this concert Annie & is doing with our friend Charlie King - this coming Friday night [tonight!], Oct 22nd, 7:30 PM

It’s called “Odd Love Songs” featuring beautiful songs that stir the heart - but not in the typical love song way…

(Sneak peak into the set list… it will include The Dutchman by Michael Peter Smith, Hard Love by Bob Franke, Trouble in the Fields by Nanci Griffith, and Old Devil Time by Pete Seeger.)

Information & tickets at: riseupandsing.org/events

Please help spread the word!!!

Story Hour Resumes Oct 23, 7:00 PM

Participants are encouraged to come and just watch/listen, or plan ahead and prepare a story, or tell one off the cuff. All are valued contributions. We have used this opportunity to deepen our shared lives together and so Dave encourages tellers to speak from their life experience.

4th Sunday Program.

The Fourth Sunday Program in October will be a discussion of a land acknowledgment and planning of our first action item in our work toward a Right Relationship with Indigenous people.12:30 after time for a bag lunch.

Do Indigenous Land Acknowledgments Do More Harm Than Good?

Sara commends this article to our attention.

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ELISA J. SOBO & MICHAEL LAMBERT & VALERIE LAMBERT

4 MIN READ

OCT 11, 2021

SCREENSHOT VIA NATIVE LAND DIGITAL

Many events these days begin with land acknowledgments: earnest statements acknowledging that activities are taking place, or institutions, businesses and even homes are built, on land previously owned by Indigenous peoples.

And many organizations now call on employees to incorporate such statements not only at events but in email signatures, videos, syllabuses and so on. Organizations provide resources to facilitate these efforts, including pronunciation guides and video examples.

Some land acknowledgments are carefully constructed in partnership with the dispossessed. The Burke Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle describes this process:

“Tribal elders and leaders are the experts and knowledge-bearers who generously shared their perspectives and guidance with the Burke. Through this consultation, we co-created the Burke’s land acknowledgement.”

That acknowledgment reads:

“We stand on the lands of the Coast Salish peoples, whose ancestors have resided here since Time Immemorial. Many Indigenous peoples thrive in this place—alive and strong.”

Land acknowledgments have been used to start conversations regarding how non-Indigenous people can support Indigenous sovereignty and advocate for land repatriation.

Yet the historical and anthropological facts demonstrate that many contemporary land acknowledgments unintentionally communicate false ideas about the history of dispossession and the current realities of American Indians and Alaska Natives. And those ideas can have detrimental consequences for Indigenous peoples and nations.

This is why, in a move that surprised many non-Indigenous anthropologists to whom land acknowledgments seemed a public good, the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists requested that the American Anthropological Association officially pause land acknowledgments and the related practice of the welcoming ritual, in which Indigenous persons open conferences with prayers or blessings. The pause will enable a task force to recommend improvements after examining these practices and the history of the field’s relationship with American Indians and Alaska Natives more broadly.

We are three anthropologists directly involved in the request—Valerie Lambert of the Choctaw Nation and president of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists; Michael Lambert of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and member of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists; and EJ Sobo, an American Anthropological Association board member charged with representing interests such as those of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists. We’d like to further illuminate this Indigenous position, not from the association’s perspective but from our perspective as scholars.

“What Was Once Yours Is Now Ours”

No data exists to demonstrate that land acknowledgments lead to measurable, concrete change. Instead, they often serve as little more than feel-good public gestures signaling ideological conformity to what historians Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder have called—in the context of higher education’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts—“a naïve, left-wing, paint-by-numbers approach” to social justice.

Take, for instance, the evocation in many acknowledgments of a time when Indigenous peoples acted as “stewards” or “custodians” of the land now occupied. This and related references—for example, to “ancestral homelands”—relegate Indigenous peoples to a mythic past and fail to acknowledge that they owned the land. Even if unintentionally, such assertions tacitly affirm the putative right of non-Indigenous people to now claim title.

This is also implied in what goes unsaid: After acknowledging that an institution sits on another’s land, there is no follow-up. Plans are almost never articulated to give the land back. The implication is: “What was once yours is now ours.”

Additionally, in most cases these statements fail to acknowledge the violent trauma of land being stolen from Indigenous people—the death, dispossession and displacement of countless individuals and much collective suffering. The afterlives of these traumas are deeply felt and experienced in Indigenous communities.

But because non-Indigenous people are generally unaware of this trauma, land acknowledgments are often heard by Indigenous peoples as the denial of that trauma. This perspective is reinforced by a tendency to cast Indigenous peoples as part of prehistory, suggesting that the trauma of dispossession, if it happened at all, did not happen to real or wholly human people.

Further, land acknowledgments can undermine Indigenous sovereignty in ways that are both insidious and often incomprehensible to non-Indigenous people.

For example, non-Indigenous people tend to seek local “Indigenous” affirmation of their acknowledgment performance, such as by arranging for a conference blessing or Welcome to Country ritual. Such rites often feature the voices of people who, in Indigenous Studies scholar Kim TallBear’s words, play at being Indian—that is, those who have no legitimate claim to an Indigenous identity or sovereign nation status but represent themselves as such.

“Sovereignty and Alienation”

Appropriation of American Indian and Alaska Native identity by individuals who are not members of sovereign tribes, referred to as “pretendians” by actual American Indians and Alaska Natives, is endemic. Actor Iron Eyes Cody, for instance, built a decadeslong career on it despite his Italian heritage.

Demographic data suggests that pretendians outnumber real American Indian and Alaska Natives by a ratio of at least 4 to 1. In some cases, pretendians persist in their claims in the face of clear documentation to the contrary.

When non-Indigenous people allow pretendians authority regarding land acknowledgments and blessing ceremonies, it irreparably harms sovereign Indigenous nations and their citizens. The most threatening message communicated by these acts is that American Indian identity is a racial or ethnic identity that anyone can claim through self-identification. This is not true.

American Indian identity is a political identity based on citizenship in an Indigenous nation whose sovereignty has been acknowledged by the U.S. government. Sovereign Indigenous nations, and only these nations, have the authority to determine who is and is not a citizen, and hence who is and is not an American Indian or Alaska Native.

Anything less would undermine the entire body of Indian Law, undoing tribal sovereignty. As Rebecca Nagle of the Cherokee Nation explains in “This Land,” American Indians and Alaska Natives would effectively cease to exist.

And so, particularly when they perpetuate misunderstandings of Indigenous identities, land acknowledgments done wrong are heard by Indigenous peoples as the final blow: a definitive apocalyptic vision of a world in which Indigenous sovereignty and land rights will not be recognized and will be claimed never to have really existed.

“Respect and Restoration”

Land acknowledgments are not harmful, we believe, if they are done in a way that is respectful of the Indigenous nations who claim the land, accurately tell the story of how the land passed from Indigenous to non-Indigenous control, and chart a path forward for redressing the harm inflicted through the process of land dispossession.

What many Indigenous persons want from a land acknowledgment is, first, a clear statement that the land needs to be restored to the Indigenous nation or nations that previously had sovereignty over the land.

This is not unrealistic: There are many creative ways to take restorative measures and even to give land back, such as by returning U.S. national parks to the appropriate tribes. Following from this, land acknowledgments must reveal a sincere commitment to respecting and enhancing Indigenous sovereignty.

If an acknowledgment is discomforting and triggers uncomfortable conversations versus self-congratulation, it is likely on the right track.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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VALERIE LAMBERT is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, President of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists (a section of the American Anthropological Association). She was reared in Oklahoma and is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation. She is also of documented Chickasaw ancestry. Her first book, Choctaw Nation: A Story of American Indian Resurgence (University of Nebraska Press 2007), is a story of tribal nation building in the modern era. It is the winner of the North American Indian Prose Award and was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award.

MICHAEL LAMBERT is Associate Professor of African Studies and Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. His research has focused on francophone West Africa and, in particular, the West African nation of Senegal. He lived for more than five years in Senegal and the neighboring nation of Mauritania, where he served as a Peace Corps volunteer. Hos first book, Longing for Exile: Migration and the Making of a Translocal Community in Senegal (West Africa) (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002), is a historical ethnography of a Senegalese community. He has also published on gender, negritude, transnational migration, and West African politics.

ELISA J. SOBO is a sociocultural anthropologist, and professor and Chair of Anthropology at San Diego State University. Past president of the Society for Medical Anthropology and a longstanding member of the editorial boards of Anthropology and Medicine, Medical Anthropology, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Dr. Sobo has published 13 books (e.g., Culture and Meaning in Health Services Research) and numerous peer-reviewed articles. Her work has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, and in The New York Times, Washington Post, and other news outlets. She has written commentaries for HuffPost, Sapiens, San Diego’s Union Tribune, and other public-facing media. Dr. Sobo’s areas of expertise include childhood and child health, biomedical and other medical/health cultures, organizational issues in healthcare, patient-provider communication, disparities and cultural competence in health care, health-related stigma and identity, risk perception, and qualitative methods (including both ethnographic and rapid assessment methods).

Why you can trust us

Quaker Support of the Poor People's Campaign: Then and Now:

On Thursday, November 4, at 6 p.m. ET, join us for a virtual meeting for learning to hear from leaders of the #PoorPeoplesCampaign and see how Quakers across the U.S. and AFSC staff can together take action for economic, racial and gender justice. [Note that the link above takes you to a registration form. Just scroll down a bit.]

In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Poor People’s Campaign, which mobilized tens of thousands of people across the U.S. to demand economic justice for all. AFSC was one of the principal endorsers of the Poor People's Campaign. Early on King sought help from AFSC citing his gratitude for "the devotion, cooperation and help accorded us in the past." We worked directly with King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and other organizations to develop the campaign's platform, strategize, and bring people from around the U.S. to Washington, D.C.

Although King was assassinated just weeks before the event, a renewed Poor People’s Campaign carries forward his legacy. Today AFSC is again supporting this work, mobilizing community members and resources as part of a national call for moral revival and economic equality.

Questions: Contact questions [at] afsc [dot] org

A message from Marian Baker in Kenya

Greetings to you all from western Kenya. Attached is my report of the first week or so here. The amount of Covid has decreased, schools have reopened, and things are getting back closer to normal, though inside buildings, masks are still worn. I was glad the bus I took cross country from Nairobi to Kaimosi required all to wear masks the whole time.

With much gratitude,

Marian

See her report with photos here

The following items are repeated from prior announcements and may contain small edits to update information.

Minutes.

The draft minutes of the 10/10/21 Meeting for Worship for the Conduct of Business are available at https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/2021-10-10_CMM_Minutes

Ministry and Counsel Announcements:

Small Groups: A while ago, we started several zoom groups for things like fellowship and care, and book discussions. As people join in for what feels like a new year in September, it feels like a good time to add new people, start new books, think about other types of groups. We would like to know your ideas and desires for joining groups or forming new ones. Our current fellowship and care groups like to meet weekly and have a consistent membership so they can have ongoing discussions. This is similar to how the book discussions operate. BTW there is much interest in reading The Gatherings. Keep that in mind as you fill out the attached survey. We are looking for other ideas, some of which could be more casual, maybe a zoom potluck dinner to just chat? The linked survey is Word document you can download and add your comments to and then return to MinistryandCounsel [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org (subject: Small%20Groups%20Survey) . If you have any difficulty with the technology, please let us know.

October Fourth Sunday Program. October 24, at 12:30 We would like to present a program on our ongoing work to attain Right Relationship with our Native neighbors. BRING A BAG LUNCH if attending in person.

Who wants some oak wood?

The Property Committee is anxious to get the felled and cut up oak removed from the bounds of the parking lot. We invite anyone who needs fire wood to take it away. The wood is too wet to be burned this season, but when split and stacked should dry by next winter. A donation to help defray the cost of having felled the tree would be appreciated. Pay what seems fair or makes sense in your budget or nothing at all. Write "oak" in the memo on your check, and, "Thank you." Your efforts to remove the wood are appreciated. The quantity of wood is greatly reduced now so act fast!

Portland Friends Program

Wabanaki REACH and our local planning team (Ann, Jennifer, Wayne, and now Jessica!) invite you to attend the online workshop “Decolonization and the Role of Faith Communities” on three Monday evenings, October 4, 18, & 25 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Participants will explore the role of churches (and Quakers) in the colonization of this country, learn about the harmful ongoing impacts of colonization on Wabanaki peoples, and identify strategies for repair and healing. Sessions include film, testimony, discussion, and an action/study plan for follow-up after the sessions. This workshop is intended specifically for Portland Friends Meeting and is meant to be part of our own faith community’s journey of decolonization. It is important to commit to all three sessions because they build upon each other.

Decolonization means:

Wabanaki REACH is a cross-cultural collaborative of people working with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Maine to support truth, healing, and decolonization. REACH recommends that participation be limited to folks who attended the Interacting with Maine-Wabanaki History program on May 24 of this year. However, space permitting, others in our PFM community who have shown interest in Indigenous-related matters may be accommodated. As with any Zoom event, a strong internet connection is required.

To register, email Wayne Cobb at wcobb2 [at] gmail [dot] com (subject: Decolonization%20and%20the%20Role%20of%20Faith%20Communities) (wcobb2 [at] gmail [dot] com). Please include your full name and phone number. Participation is “pay-as-led,” with a suggested donation of $12 to register. You may send your payment by Venmo (preferred) to @wcobb2, or by PayPal to my email address, or by cash or check to Wayne Cobb, 147 Allen Avenue #47, Portland ME 04103. While two people may share a screen, we ask that each consider a separate donation. All monies will be gifted to Wabanaki REACH (http://www.mainewabanakireach.org). You’ll receive a confirmation email shortly after your payment is received. Registrants will receive details about preparing for this event as the date approaches. Please register promptly!

We on the planning team look forward to gathering with you and other Portland Friends at the event. Contact: Wayne Cobb, 147 Allen Avenue #47, Portland ME 04103, 207-838-3393