#jeanlucpierite — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #jeanlucpierite, aggregated by home.social.
-
#IndigenousRights advocates: Ending Columbus Day is about more than renaming holiday
October 14, 2024
by Hanna Ali and Nik DeCosta-Klipa"A push for recognition: Though some cities and towns across #Massachusetts have elected to recognize this Monday as Indigenous Peoples Day, the state officially acknowledges today as Columbus Day. (The federal holiday is still Columbus Day, but for the last three years President Biden has also proclaimed the same date as Indigenous Peoples Day.) #WBUR’s John Bender spoke with #JeanLucPierite, President of the North American Indian Center of Boston, who shared how the desired move away from Columbus Day in Massachusetts plays into a larger push for Indigenous peoples’ rights.
"- The bill advocating for a statewide Indigenous Peoples Day is only one in a slate of five bills meant to improve the widespread recognition of Indigenous history in Massachusetts. Two of the bills relate to public education (like this one to include more Native American cultural history in public school curriculums, and this to prohibit Native American mascots in schools). Others concern establishing a permanent commission for Indigenous communities in Massachusetts and the repatriation of artifacts.
"- There is a reason Indigenous Peoples Day is at the forefront of all these broader bills, according to Pierite. 'We need to reinforce the progress being done at a city level,' Pierite said. 'We’ve seen legislation in #NewHampshire that has rolled back progress that was done on the city- and town-level in terms of adopting Indigenous Peoples Day. So, the need for a statewide solution within Massachusetts [is] much more apparent.'"