Monday Morning Quote
Quotes
Monday Morning Quotes
Monday Morning Quotes
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Since 1998 I've been sending out these reflections first thing each
week--one or more quotes plus my thoughts about the intersections and
contradictions. They're archived here back to 2002, and a new one is
posted every Monday morning. Dialogue is still welcome . . .
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Quote #1207 - #IndigenousPeoplesDay2025
13 Oct, 2025
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY 2025
"In every Indigenous community I’ve been in, they absolutely do want community infrastructure and they do want development, but they want it on their own terms. They want to be able to use their national resources and their assets in a way that protects and sustains them. Our territories are our wealth, the major assets we have. And Indigenous people use and steward this property so that they can achieve and maintain a livelihood, and achieve and maintain that same livelihood for future generations."
Rebecca Adamson
"We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance or racism."
Rigoberto Menchu
"All things are connected like the blood that unites us. We did not weave the web of life. We are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves."
Chief Seattle
For many years (even before the MMQs)
when this day rolled around,
I discussed the complexities
of celebrating Columbus Day--
when the country that was founded by Columbus
(looking for someplace else)
and settled by Pilgrims
destroyed more than one people
and was on the backs of more than one other.
Times have changed.
I don't feel quite so alone
(although the backlash is fierce and furious).
Still, it's been a relief to not have to fight so hard
for at least a large group of us to question
the old orthodoxy.
Now many of us celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day,
no matter if the government takes the legal designation away.
I see it as a day to learn more about the people whose land we stole
(yes, even we whose forebearers came more recently,
because we continue to benefit from the theft),
and to sit in the complexity that is the building
and continuation of
our civilization.
And, yes, systemic racism continues hard and strong,
particularly against Indigenous people,
Why else would we be one of only four countries in 2007
to vote against a United Nations Global Declaration of Indigenous Rights?
We need to learn more.
We need to do better.
We are all woven together
in the fabric of the Earth
and over time
we will all thrive or fail
together.
Shellen Lubin
October 13, 2025
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