Indigenous Peoples Day – FSU supports IPD at UMass Boston
9/14/2020
Dear FSU Member,
The Executive Committee of the Faculty Staff Union (FSU) heartily endorses and supports current campus efforts of the Native American & Indigenous Studies (NAIS) Program and the Institute for New England Native American Studies (INENAS) to inaugurate a robust celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day during the second week of October 2020, as an alternative to our university’s conventional recognition of Columbus Day. The FSU understands that our university was founded and built upon Boston Harbor lands first inhabited by Indigenous peoples of this region, and we must acknowledge and honor their ancestral and continuing presence in our location through appropriate commemoration.
The FSU expresses our solidarity with NAIS and with INENAS in their efforts to mount a commemorative celebration that rightly recognizes Indigenous survival and resilience across the Americas, the globe, and most especially here in our region after 400 years of colonization, injustice, land theft, systemic racism, and genocide. Indigenous Peoples Day celebrates the survival and ongoing presence of Native peoples across the world. Here in New England, it recognizes Native peoples’ contributions to the building of this region and nation, and also acknowledges the many Native American and other Indigenous students who have long pursued their studies at our university, and who form part of the multicultural mix in our classrooms. We acknowledge, as well, the UMass Boston Student Senate’s Act of 19th of September 2016, declaring Indigenous Peoples Day as their chosen alternative to Columbus Day in the student government calendar. The Faculty Staff Union is honored to stand with Indigenous members of the UMass Boston community in calling more attention to issues of racial injustice that their communities have faced historically and in the present.
FSU Executive Committee
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