Westford’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee worked to organize the first ever Indigenous Peoples Day Observance on Monday, Oct. 14 at the First Parish Church, marking the second year the holiday has been officially recognized in Westford. The location was promptly switched from the Town Common due to unexpected weather.
The DEI committee has been researching the possibility of an Indigenous Peoples’ Day event since its founding in 2020. This holiday celebrates, honors, and commemorates indigenous people while spotlighting their culture and elevating their voices. The prospect of fortifying the holiday in the town is a result of years of research and comparison with surrounding town policies.
“It took that time because it was important that the whole community engage in this conversation, and we’re so pleased. I think it’s symbolic of what we do, which is our very best to understand all the diversities that exist in Westford,” DEI Co-Chair Joe Diamond said. “The way that we understand diversity and inclusion now is probably deeper than we understood it four years ago, and part of that had to do with this process for Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
Indigenous Peoples’ Day has yet to be recognized on a nation-wide or even statewide level, and was only first adopted in the United States in 1990 by South Dakota. The holiday was officially instituted on Westford’s calendar after the 2023 Town Meeting. Here, it passed on the ballot by a mere 15 vote margin with a 11.8% voter turnout.
After the holiday was approved in 2023, a citizen’s petition resulted in Article 22 being added to the 2024 Town Meeting ballot, which would reinstate Columbus Day in pairing with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. This article was eventually voted down at the Town Meeting, but reflected another portion of the public who believed strongly in the preservation of the holiday.
In response to these concerns, the DEI committee explains that Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not intended to overlook the history of Italian-Americans like Columbus. On the contrary, the committee aims to reflect both heritages within the Westford community, beginning with Massachusetts State Representative James Arciero speaking to his own Italian-American heritage and Italian-American Heritage Month at the observance.
But because of the miseducation on Christopher Columbus which often overshadows his inherent abuse of indigenous people during his colonization, the committee believes Italian-American culture should be represented through holidays and months that do not pay disrespect to others.
“The process [of planning the event] has given us an opportunity to broaden the way that we think about heritage in Westford,” Diamond said. “It helped us to understand that one way to do that is to focus on Italian-American heritage, because we know that was part of the focus of the folks who wanted to retain Columbus Day for Italian-American heritage.”
Like the rest of the planning process, naming the event was done very intentionally by the DEI committee. The use of the word “observance” rather than “celebration” in the event’s title is a reflection of the event’s commitment to a deeper understanding of the representation of the indigenous community, that is critical for the development of the holiday in Westford.
“I think for this first year, I felt strongly about calling [the event] an observance because as you’re starting to ‘peel the onion’, so to speak, some of it is very difficult and we’re just starting to get a peek in,” DEI Committee member Wendy Gloyd said. “Then later on, we can celebrate once we all have a common understanding and a better experience of the pain and shared knowledge around it.”
Westford was primarily inhabited by the Nipmuc people, an ancestry the DEI committee is working towards educating the community on. This history of surrounding indigenous communities is a key contributor to the Westford people now know. This reality is a primary focus when recognizing the importance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Westford.
To authentically feature the indigenous history of Massachusetts, a member of the federally recognized Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, Angela Marcellino, was featured as the keynote speaker for the event. Marcellino, also known as Woman Bear that Swims by her spiritual name, started speaking at events after the publishing of her book The True Natives of Cape Cod Massachusetts and their Food Ways, educating local communities on the hardships and history of New England’s indigenous people.
“I want to also tell you this story with resilience, celebration and survival. There’s a lot to celebrate here as well. Our religion is clear,” Marcellino said. “We are the relatives of the land, the water, the winged, the fish, and the four legged. We are also guardians and protectors of the land. Land ownership is a European concept. We didn’t have a chance from the beginning.”
Aside from Marcellio, other featured speakers included DEI Co-Chairs Diamond and Anjali Rajput, DEI and Select Board Member Andrea Peraner-Sweet, and DEI Liaison and School Committee Member Bill McDonald. Additionally, Massachusetts State Representative James Arciero was featured, speaking on behalf of Italian-American Heritage Month.
“I really enjoyed the observance and I was really glad [the DEI committee] brought someone in from the Mashpee tribe,” WA junior Sofia Gutierrez said. “We got to learn so much about [indigenous] way of life before the Europeans came, which isn’t normally talked about.”
Through Marcellino’s presentation, she elaborated on the themes of her book, using recipes to take the reader through her tribal history and culture. Expressing her love for learning about different cultures in her journey to research the recipes in her book, she learned how the food was linked to the interactions between the colonies and the indigenous people. In this discovery, she was able to trace her ancestry alongside historical events, and how the deeply rooted traditions of her tribe have persisted through it all.
“I never felt that I was less than anybody from being a native. I felt empowered. I always had a purpose, and the purpose was around maintaining our culture and dedicating [ourselves] to this community,” Marcellino said. “And the difference between us and your average day person is that I am the product of an uninterrupted connection to a land that we walked on for 10,000 years, and generational families that share the same culture. With that kind of a history, it makes you a powerful person in itself, being from that kind of a community.”
Marcellino also shared the history of nearby towns such as Chelmsford, Littleton, and Natick being praying towns, institutionally isolated areas aimed at assimilating indigenous communities, as well as the history of Mashpee, their tightly-knit community, and how only in 2007 did they become federally recognized. To hear more about Marcellino’s story and experiences, listen to the podcast the DEI committee published with her earlier this month.
“As a lifelong native living a native life, I have so many stories. And the thing that shocks me the most is when I tell people things about the Mashpee and they’re in shock – they didn’t know these things,” Marcellino said. “So it’s an honor to educate people and to encourage them to tell our story in a good way.”
Going forward, the DEI Committee hopes to continue to foster more engaged dialogue on topics of diversity and heritage, primarily through hosting events similar to this. After the positive feedback from Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the committee also aims to continue with a similar observance in the future, even building upon the list of speakers.
“I’m gratified at the support and the response [towards the observance]. It is just another opportunity that I think the DEI committee has provided for people to come together to learn to move this broad conversation forward,” Diamond said. “And then I’m hoping that this is a point in time that is part of a conversation that will continue relating to not only Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but also Italian-American heritage.”
Wendy Gloyd • Oct 21, 2024 at 12:02 pm
Thank you for writing such a wonderful article, Kate! It was a pleasure to meet you and you did a fantastic job of covering the event with full context and sensitivity!