How to Celebrate America’s Big Awkward Birthday Party
Join me, Valarie Kaur, and carriers of the best American story you haven’t heard
Hi you,
It’s been a minute, and this email is worth returning from newsletter-hiatus for.
This summer, we all get to experience America’s Big Awkward Birthday party commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. What a time to be alive in these United States. What an honest moment to question what it is we have to celebrate at all.
Obviously, some of us will be heavily focused on the military flyovers and MMA fighting cage that our founders intended (see: Federalist No. 86 which argues that only through publicly sanctioned coliseum combat can faction be purified, civic virtue restored, and the will of the people made physically manifest). But, if you’re looking for something different, or if you think we have nothing to celebrate at all, I have a special party invitation for you.
Join me (bringing the spirit of How To Citizen) and my sister and powerful leader, Valarie Kaur of The Revolutionary Love Project next Tuesday June 9th for a virtual event we’re co-hosting and calling:
Declaring Interdependence
A Gathering for the 250th
June 9th at 5pm PT / 8pm ET
What we have been told about the history of democracy, and even what democracy is, pales in comparison to the bigger truth and deeper practice. Democracy is Indigenous to this land and has been practiced here since long before the arrival of any Europeans. Our founders were invited to live in this deeper democracy, but did not fully accept the invitation. The offer is still there. I’ve written and spoken about this as I’ve become more familiar with the story, including in this article in Atmos and in my writings about the Ken Burns American Revolution documentary. But my own words are wildly insufficient as a representation of this message.
A primary goal of our gathering next week is to uplift the new book, American Indigenous Democracy: A Call for Interdependence. This book features the voices of Haudenosaunee elders and contemporary activists and extends the invitation to all of us to embrace principles of democracy that have always been here, and which we desperately need now. Let’s together imagine how to organize around peace, reciprocity, long-term thinking, women at the center, and life itself.
To share that lesser-known history, its current relevance, and continued invitation, Valarie and I will be joined by two absolutely astounding Indigenous elders who carry the spirit of the world’s longest running democracy in their hearts, in their minds, and in their life’s work.
Hatueyael José Barreiro, who edited American Indigenous Democracy, is a novelist, essayist, journalist, and activist. He was born in Jayama, Camagüey Province, Cuba, and resides on the Akwesasne (St. Regis Mohawk) reservation located between (lands presently known as) the state of New York, USA, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec. He is a member of the Taíno Nation. His four-decade career is dedicated to sociocultural issues and the defense and well-being of Indigenous peoples of the American hemisphere. He was editor-in-chief of Akwe:kon Press/Native Americas at Cornell University, served as director of historical and cultural research and director of the Office for Latin America at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and was senior editor of Indian Country Today. He also served as co-editor of Akwesasne Notes with Seneca scholar John Mohawk and is a trusted collaborator with Chief Oren Lyons of the Onondaga Nation.
Tekatsi:tsia’kawa Katsi Cook-Barreiro, a contributor to the book, is an Ohnwehón:we traditional midwife, Elder, and executive director of Spirit Aligned Leadership Program. She is a Wolf Clan member of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation. Katsi is an advocate of Indigenous women’s health across the life cycle, drawing from a Longhouse traditionalist perspective the teaching of Woman Is the First Environment. Her groundbreaking environmental research of Mohawk mother’s milk revealed the harmful inter-generational impact of industrial chemicals on the health and well-being of the community.
I cannot over-emphasize how special these humans are! This is a rare opportunity for us all and a beautiful counter-program to messages of domination, destruction, and selfishness.
Whether you can join or not, please accept the invitation to practice these deeper principles of democracy by pre-ordering the book organized specifically for this moment. American Indigenous Democracy: A Call for Interdependence.
While I have you here, I also want to show some love for Next250 who have been working on a new Declaration for the USA grounded in Interdependence. Their National Mobilization takes place in Washington, DC on June 27th and I encourage you to sign, as I have, their Declaration of Interdependence.
It’s hard out here in these hyper-individualistic streets. We’ve all been manipulated into thinking that unnatural ways of being are natural and that independence alone will get us to a good future. But independence alone leaves us all alone. And we need each other.
So please, share this invitation with someone you feel connected to and with whom you want to build a thriving future.
Much love,
Baratunde.