I've just returned from a turkey dinner at my sister's place. My mom came over for the weekend and we had dinner today because tomorrow my family has its weekly language dinner/lesson and Monday my mom has to head back to Vancouver. I guess it was a "thanksgiving" dinner in so far as we ate turkey and mashed potatos and my mom's famous stuffing and gravy (although I was able to intervene at the grocery store to skip the brussell sprouts :p). I see a lot of MSN nicknames include "thanks for nothing" and thanks-taking etc." While I agree that Indigenous people have no place celebrating colonial holidays, its hard to argue when the whole family wants to get together, enjoy each other's company and consume some seratonin-inducing bird.
I do not recall (this seems to happen often) the exact quote from Gandhi but it goes something like this: "we must learn to distinguish between the fundamental challenges of colonialism and the minor irritances." Of course we could debate endlessly on that which we feel is important, and worthy of our finite efforts and that which is merely an irritance and not worthy of our precious time but I think the little guy has a point.
I believe that one positive thing we can do is take these opportunities to gather with our families and not only enjoy our time together but share stories and teachings and make it ours. I think in many ways, we already have. For those of you that still will have nothing to do with this weekend's activities check out this song, Pilgrimz by Shysti from his CD Border Music. Another example of reclaiming a holiday is coming up next week: October 12th is no longer Columbus Day in Venezuela but now the Day of Indigenous Resistance.
Whew! I'm still stuffed, and feeling a little sleepy :I
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