The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address - The Words that Come Before All Else

A Quick Note
We maintain a Facebook group for this event where you may get the details and Zoom link to use each week - no need to pay a subscription fee! The Haudenosaunee People would have been embarrassed to charge admission to the Words, and Meetup ought to be ashamed of putting profit first. Just our opinion.

Why We Do This
One response to colonialism is to embrace indigenous practices of community, acceptance, and gratitude with reverence in our modern life. This Meetup is precisely that: an 11-minute audio-only responsive ritual. You're invited to listen or participate as you wish.

Agenda
Welcome: first ten minutes
Words: next eleven minutes

Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of the book Braiding Sweetgrass was repeatedly told by Haudenosaunee (pronounced: who-DIN-oh-show-nee; also known as the Iroquois) people that the words of the Thanksgiving Address are their gift to the world, and are meant to be shared. This address is also known as The Words That Come Before All Else, as it is traditionally spoken to greet the day, start a meeting, or before starting negotiations with other nations.

The Onondaga ("Hill Place") people are one of the original five constituent nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in northeast North America. When Kimmerer asked the Onondaga Faithkeeper Oren Lyons about sharing the Thanksgiving Address in her book, he said, "Of course you should write about it. It's supposed to be shared, otherwise how can it work? We've been waiting for five hundred years for people to listen. If they'd understood the Thanksgiving then, we wouldn't be in this mess."

So as we read it together, feel the gratitude in your heart for all of the life around us that gives us so much and allows us to live.