The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address honors our human relationship with the world and the interconnectivity of all beings. From the birds to the waters to the sun, it systematically recognizes the elements, energies, and creatures of the Earth.
Each acknowledgement ends with the phrase, "And now our minds are one,” yoking mind, body, spirit, and community of place, much like the yogic aspiration of unity. To this day, the Thanksgiving Address is how the nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy begin social, cultural, and political events. We will read a Mohawk version written down in 1993 by John Stokes and Kanawahienton in collaboration with the Six Nations Indian Museum and the Tracking Project.
We’ll flow with these words of reverence and gratitude with gentle, repetitive movements, so that the motion becomes a form of prayer. This practice is intended to honor and learn from a culture that has belonged to this land for a long time, recognizing that Indigenous wisdom holds a key to living in right relationship with the Earth.
All proceeds will go to The Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance (NAFSA), an organization "dedicated to restoring the Indigenous food systems that support Indigenous self-determination, wellness, cultures, values, communities, economies, languages, families, and rebuild relationships with the land, water, plants and animals that sustain us.”
Land Acknowledgement -
We acknowledge that Joy of Yoga is located on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Kickapoo, Osage, Miami, Kaskaskia, Quapaw (Ogahpah), and Očeti Šakówiŋ (Sioux) tribes, who were removed unjustly, and that we are the beneficiaries of that removal. The Osage Nation signed a treaty ceding where we now reside to the United States in 1808 to evade threat of war. We recognize that this land is more than a territory to be traded. It holds a continuous, vital, and reciprocal relationship with these peoples. We pay respect to elders both past and present and thank them for their stewardship.
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Facilitator: Jessie Kissinger
Location: Main Studio & Online (Follow the link below to receive the ZOOM password)
Cost: FREE