Infinite Thread XXIX » « Assembly Theory is Ontogenetic Depth relabeled, nothing more, and is just as useless

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day

And I don’t want to hear you say otherwise. We don’t celebrate greedy genocidal monsters around these here parts, we honor the people who lived on this land.

For the third year running, a U.S. president has officially recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

President Biden issued a proclamation on Friday to observe Monday, Oct. 9, as a day to honor Native Americans, their “resilience, strength, and perseverance” and “determination to preserve cultures, identities, and ways of life,” even as they have faced “violence and devastation,” he said.

Infinite Thread XXIX » « Assembly Theory is Ontogenetic Depth relabeled, nothing more, and is just as useless

Comments

  4. René says

    Any native speaker (of English) care to explain the use of the possesive apostrophy? What is wrong with “Indigenous Peoples Day” without the apostrophy? Was it ever “Columbus’ Day,” with an apostrophy? Curious non-native wants to know.

  6. says

    Here in Canada, it’s Thanksgiving day, although my wife’s family always celebrates on Sunday. We had our National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30.

  7. whheydt says

    Actually…it’s Indigenous Peoples Day Observed. What it really is, is Leif Erikson Day.

  8. Akira MacKenzie says

    I’m somewhat reluctant to use the phrase “Indigenous Peoples Day” because I know I’m going to run into a right wing asshole who will INSIST on calling it “Columbus Day.”

    Chances are, that right-wing asshole is going to be my father.

  9. Walter Solomon says

    Akira, is there even a single issue with which you agree with your father? You two seem to be polar opposites just going by everything you’ve written over the years.

  10. says

    @9 René – You have in the past shown you are quite fluent in English. But, English (both British and that spoken in the U.S.) is a muddled language at best, derive from many other root languages and then mixed up by all sorts of weird usage over time. If I remember correctly, “Indigenous People” refers to one group of people (perhaps many from one tribe), “Indigenous Peoples” refers to many groups of people (perhaps many people from many different tribes). Therefore, “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” refers to the “plural possessive”: indicating a day that is in honor of many groups of people. I’m only half-awake, I hope that was somewhat clear and correct.

  11. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 9

    Akira, is there even a single issue with which you agree with your father?

    Why should there be?

  12. cartomancer says

    Rene, #4,

    My guess is that the important bit is that the apostrophe comes after the “s” – i.e. to emphasise that “Indigenous People” is plural.

    It’s not just a day to celebrate some inchoate mass of “Indigenous People”, but recognises that the different peoples of the pre-colonisation American continents were distinct, diverse and culturally vibrant societies, and those that remain still are.

    This is not really possible to clarify in English apart from with a tactical apostrophe.

  13. lumipuna says

    Regarding tactical apostrophe, René raises the question whether marking the possessive is necessary in the first place. At least when it comes to days dedicated to persons, like the old war criminal Columbus, the seems to be a convention of not marking the possessive.

    One time on Twitter, there was confused discussion on whether the correct form is “mother’s day” or “mothers’ day”. I don’t remember offhand which it is, but I recall it’s definitely not “mothers day”.

  15. birgerjohansson says

    Fun coincidence: I just learned the revised dating for when people came to the Americas has been confirmed.
    It is 7000 years earlier than previous assumptions, which puts the arrival of proto-Indians more than 20,000 years ago.

    Sadly, this arrival began the pattern of extinctions which culminated with the arrival of Europeans and continues today. Humans and a diverse nature do not mix.

  16. birgerjohansson says

    Whheydt @ 7
    Yeah, he gets all the credit for what Eric the Red found.
    And before Columbus, there was a Chinese admiral that reached Mexico (they mentioned tequila in their records- an alcohol beverage made “from trees”).

  19. Robert Webster says

    Anyone who gets a heartfelt welcome by an indigenous group and decides this makes them perfect as slaves is a special POS.

  21. chigau (違う) says

    birgerjohansson @15
    That is not news to North American archaeologists and South American archaeologists.
    birgerjohansson @16
    That whole “Chinese in the Americas” thing is utter bollocks.

  22. brightmoon says

    @#8 , Akira you’ve got my sympathy. My father was a raging homophobe and misogynist who hated people of his own race! I don’t agree with most of what he believed either . The only thing that man got right was his contempt for American education standards . They really are pathetic especially with science, civics and history

  23. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 22

    Thank you. For me the problem is that even though he is 75 years old. He fucking terrifies me. He has a very short temper. If I wasn’t financially hopeless and a irresponsible basketcase, I’d move out.

  24. StevoR says

    Of course, we’ve just had a huge and disgraceful set back here in Australia for our Indigenous Peoples where disinformation, lies and racism have won out and the non-binding advisory Voice to parliament has been voted down :

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/voice-to-parliament-referendum

    Also :

    After it was resoundingly rejected in Saturday’s referendum, the Voice will never be heard by white Australia. For the great many First Nations people who voted for it, theirs is an unhappy burden: How will they explain to their children and grandchildren why the rest of Australia took the decision that it did?

    This set-back to reconciliation, however, is all of ours to share. It will be picked at and picked at, and fester long after the confections of the campaign are forgotten. Only with the passage of time will scholars and historians give the plebiscite its true context.

    Of the many lessons of Saturday’s outcome, there is one which must be more urgently addressed. And that is our appetite for mistruths:

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-17/voice-referendum-infected-disinformation-australians-lies/102981108

    A statement from Indigenous Supporters of the Voice – the overwhelming majority of them – here :

    Recognition in the Constitution of the descendants of the original and continuing owners of Australia would have been a great advance for Australians. Alas, the majority have rejected it.

    This is a bitter irony. That people who have only been on this continent for 235 years would refuse to recognise those whose home this land has been for 60,000 and more years is beyond reason.

    It was never in the gift of these newcomers to refuse recognition to the true owners of Australia. The referendum was a chance for newcomers to show a long-refused grace and gratitude and to acknowledge that the brutal dispossession of our people underwrote their every advantage in this country.

    For more than six years, we have explained to our nation why the Voice was our great hope to achieve real change for our families and communities. … (snip).. We now know where we stand in this our own country.

    Always was. Always will be.

    We will not rest long. Pack up the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Fly our flags low.

    Talk not of recognition and reconciliation. Only of justice and the rights of our people in our own country. Things that no one else can gift us, but to which we are entitled by fact that this is the country of our birth and inheritance.

    Regather our strength and resolve, and when we determine a new direction for justice and our rights, let us once again unite. Let us convene in due course to carefully consider our path forward.

    We are calling A Week of Silence from tonight (Saturday 14th October) to grieve this outcome and reflect on its meaning and significance. We will not be commenting further on the result at this time.

    We will be lowering our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to half-mast for the week of silence to acknowledge this result.

    We ask others to do the same.

    Source : https://ulurustatement.org/a-statement-from-indigenous-australians-who-supported-the-voice-referendum/