The Education Working Group has a resource for you! This SURJ Thanksgiving Placemat Remix (grayscale here) is a physical way to make space for Indigenous solidarity at your Thanksgiving table. You can share it on social media, include it in your physical or virtual table, or reflect on it with a loved one. Awareness is the first step in our journey, and often begins at home. We’ll share at SURJ’s December 1st General Meeting about discussions we had and actions we took. A team has been discussing how SURJ @ Sacred Heart can learn and act in solidarity with local Indigenous peoples, including the Muwekma Ohlone and Amah Mutsun.
Thanksgiving can be an intense time for many families. Here are three possible ways to introduce the placemat:
Share it as an update about what you’ve been doing and learning recently, to invite your family members in from a place of curiosity.
If you’re having a virtual gathering, share the placemat with “share screen” so you can provide framing and context for the discussion.
If you have a practice of identifying what you are grateful for, frame the prompts on the placemat to generate gratitude and perspective. How can we use what we are grateful for to have a conversation about what to do with our privilege?