CPTnet September 17, 2006 Kenora, Ontario: Call for Thanksgiving Fast

By Carol Rose

The July/August 2006 CPT Kenora delegation calls a Thanksgiving fast,
repentance of our complicity in the sin of European colonization of this
continent.

We looked where an Anishinaabe elder pointed out the hillside where she
grew up, now occupied by large lakeside vacation homes. We saw officers
harshly drag an aboriginal man out of his corner of peaceful sleep and
shove him into police vehicle. We walked bulldozed gouges through clear
cut wounds where forest recently flourished.

The First Nations community of Trout Lake welcomed us into their
gathering under cedar trees and open sky. We joined a circle of learning
that encompassed building of canoe and community, weaving baskets and
conversation, cooking up pancakes and plans for peacemaking in this 500
year old occupation.

In response to their gracious welcome, we wonder; How can we live our
way out of the deep wounds and stolen bounty of colonization? How can
we undo the systemic racism that continues to impose upon and rob others
while benefiting us? We seek God's light in the struggle to dismantle
this twin inheritance. Fasting is a listening school. Fasting may
deepen in us the lesson of the difference between receiving and taking.

The Trout Lake community invited us join their feast. Turkey and mashed
potatoes brought other feasts to mind. Although delegates came from
both the United States and Canada, all of us have shared similar
thanksgiving meals. Each of us learned the thanksgiving myth of early
European settlers who were cared for and kept alive by the generosity of
the aboriginal people. This year with fasting we recognize that we have
celebrated that story in ways that covered over the violence of the
European invasion of this land.

The puritan immigrants found the land around Plymouth already cleared
for agriculture. They ate from the harvest stores of villages that were
emptied by European diseases that had already killed over 90 of the
aboriginal population. John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony wrote, "But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued
them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by
the smallpox. So God hath thereby cleared our title to this place."
King James of England offered thanksgiving because "almighty God in his
great goodness and bounty towards us (for sending) this wonderful plague
among the salvages. (sic)"*

The pattern continues. An aboriginal trapper checks her government
licensed trap lines. She finds that a government licensed logging
company has stripped the whole area. Her livelihood and holy home is
stolen. This story is not covered in the newspapers we read that are
printed on the pulp of this harvest. How different is it when we give
thanks for land and comforts that have been taken rather than given?

*Quotes from Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History
Textbook Got Wrong, chapter 3, James W. Loewen