Why I Fast for 'Thanksgiving,' the National Day of Mourning
— In solidarity with Indigenous peoples, protesting settler colonialism.
Settler colonialism is a brand of squatting, where the original or indigenous inhabitants of a region are displaced—often by genocidal force for settlers to later claim the land as their own.
The term, while polarizing, has been thrown around a lot recently. For many of us in the West, it’s deceptively viewed as a distant occurrence anchored to the borderlands of faraway places like the Middle East and North Africa. Yet what we call the United States of America, is veritably, a massive settler colony stolen from Indigenous peoples of the Americas. In David Silverman’s book, This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, he walks us through the story of English settlement and their myth of thanksgiving peppered with erroneousness historical inaccuracies. The author theorizes that the constant retelling of lies in regards to the way the United States was founded, is violence against the Wampanoag peoples who survived the first settler colonization of their land.
What we call the United States of America, is veritably, a massive settler colony.
So for the third year, I’m fasting in observation of the National Day of Mourning, NDOM. I fast to reflect, to mourn, and to resist the sanitized myths of colonialism that get peddled every year at the Thanksgiving table. I fast to remember the Wampanoag and all Indigenous peoples across the globe harmed by settler colonialism. I’m the annoying melancholy friend and family member sitting with an empty plate, armed with the real history of Thanksgiving, ready to be dispensed.
National Day of Mourning
The first National Day of Mourning demonstration took place in 1970 after Frank "Wamsutta" James’ speaking invitation was rescinded from a Massachusetts Thanksgiving Day celebration commemorating the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower. Instead, elder Wamsutta delivered his speech on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, next to a statue of Ousamequin, where he debunked the lie and proclaimed the Native American perspectives on Thanksgiving celebrations. Since then, NDOM has been observed every year in protest.
Founded by the United American Indians of New England, it has become a solemn, spiritual, and highly political day where many fast from sundown the day before through the afternoon of that day, gathering afterward to break their fasts together. I’ll be sharing a recipe to break fast for anyone who is also observing the day.
Liberian Settler Colonialism
As a Liberian-Ghanaian-American gyal, I’ve always been gravely attuned to the complexities of settler colonialism. Not as an academic or political concept but with irl events and lived experiences that have shaped my personal history. Liberia’s founding has been framed as a triumph of freed Africans and African Americans seeking a new life on the continent. What’s often left out of that narrative is the story of settler colonialism. The settlers who arrived in Liberia—freed Black Americans sent by the American Colonization Society—claimed land, resources, and authority under the guise of Black freedom without acknowledging the Indigenous peoples already living there.
Like settlers in the Americas, these newcomers displaced the Indigenous African peoples—such as the Kpelle, Gola, and Vai people—and asserted their colonial dominance over the land. The arrival of these settlers, framed as an act of liberation, was actually a continuation of white American-backed colonialism. Much like the Wampanoag peoples in the United States, the Indigenous peoples of Liberia were marginalized and their cultures erased. The history of Liberia, just like the history of the United States, is messy and complicated. It’s a story of settler colonialism, violence, and the imposition of foreign power over native peoples. This dynamic is not unique to Liberia. It mirrors the histories of the Americas north and south, Palestine, Kenya, Algeria, Libya, South Africa, the Caribbean, and countless other regions.
Why I’m Fasting
As we gear up to celebrate the traditional myth of ‘thanksgiving’ with gluttonous celebration of food, booze, and family bickering—my feed has been hijacked by nasty-looking recipes for green bean casserole, questionable stuffed meats, inauthentic mac n cheese with breadcrumbs, and other thanksgiving recipe ideas making me just as nauseous as contributing to the myth of ‘Thanksgiving’ itself.
In the context of TASTE BUD, where food is my ‘lil lane for storytelling, I’m choosing to sit with the discomfort, to acknowledge the deep grief that runs through our joint histories. I’m choosing to sit with the stories that aren’t told at the dinner table, the ones that aren’t part of the celebration but should be heard. I’m willing to be the depressing one at the celebration fasting because it feels like the only meaningful way that I can revere the histories of those who have been silenced. Food is a sacred celebratory act—a way to bond, and to honor heritage and culture. In the case of Thanksgiving, it perpetuates a myth that erases the pain of Indigenous peoples and the violent foundations of the settler society that this country was built on and I don’t want to use food as a vessel to celebrate that.
National Day of Mourning: Thursday, November 28, 2024 at Cole's Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts on Wampanoag land, 12:00PM ET (Livestream here)
A Message from The United American Indians of New England:
Join us as we continue to create a true awareness of Native peoples and history. Help shatter the untrue image of the Pilgrims, and the unjust system based on white supremacy, settler colonialism, sexism, homophobia and the profit-driven destruction of the Earth that they and other European settlers introduced to these shores.
The rallies and marches will last until approximately 3 pm (sometimes later).
While we are grateful for your donations to UAINE (United American Indians of New England), we want to urge everyone to make donations to organizations that are currently able to have a direct impact on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Here are a few that have been recommended:
You can donate directly to UAINE here. We will also have a cash blanket dance as usual to support Leonard Peltier.
Thank you!
thank you so much for writing and sharing this.