Representatives stand in a crescent moon shape offering land acknowledgement and blessing.
NEW YORK-For the first time in its 94-year history, the 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade featured a land acknowledgement and blessing to honor the Wampanoag and Lenape people.
This broadcast took place on Thursday, November 26, Thanksgiving Day 2020 in the United States. Ryan Opalanietet Pierce (Lenape) and Joan Henry (Tsalagi/'Nde/Arawaka) acknowledged the Lenape territory of Manahattan, where the parade takes place annually. Mashpee Wampanoag tribal members and language keepers Annawon and Brian Weeden provided an honoring in Wôpanâôt8âôk (Wampanoag language). This opening was accompanied by Indigenous Ambassadors living in the Northeast region including Tanis Parenteau (Métis), John Scott Richardson (Haliwa-saponi/Tuscarora), Urie Ridgeway (Lenape) and music by Ty Defoe (Oneida/Ojibwe).
The Wampanoag Tribe, also known as The People of the First Light, have inhabited the Eastern coast of present-day Massachusetts for thousands of years. Through historical written documents by Wampanoag people, language and culture are again thriving today on this Indigenous land.
The Wampanoag blessing, which was written by Siobhan Brown of the Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project, (WLRP.org) aired exclusively in the Wampanoag language, but translates in English: "Creator and Ancestors, we honor you for all things. We honor the Lenape people of Manahatta. We honor all our relations because, long ago, we were here. Now we are here and we will always be here. And so it is."
