Indigenous Peoples Day: ‘Debunking Columbus’
By Johnnie Stevens and Sara Catalinotto
Indigenous Peoples Day in New York City this year featured a two-day cultural festival, a museum tour and a rally of 1,000 people to demand removal of colonial statues, along with other actions and declarations.
Redhawk Native American Arts Council hosted the Indigenous Peoples Celebration on Randall’s Island in the Harlem River on Oct. 8 and 9, with the theme “Rethinking Columbus Day and Honoring Water Protectors.”
Decolonize This Place held its second annual anti-Columbus Day tour at the American Museum of Natural History on Central Park West, where another offensive statue disgraces the front steps: U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt in uniform on a horse, with a half-naked African man and an Indigenous man below and behind on either side of the horse. Roosevelt was instrumental in the military colonization of Puerto Rico, currently continued in U.S. efforts at economic recolonization combined with the aftermath of devastating hurricane damage on the island.
In the afternoon museum action, hundreds went inside, lined up for tickets and then conducted a tour using the “people’s mike” technique. (Video at tinyurl.com/y7yk6edz.) While singing, drumming and explaining how the artifacts were acquired, participants also passed out a brochure to museumgoers titled “Debunking Christopher Columbus: #NotMyHero.”