The USA celebrates “Columbus Day” each 12 October but recently people and State governments have designated it “Indigenous Peoples Day”. David Stirrup - Professor of American Literature and Indigenous Studies for the University of Kent - explains this:
‘The events of the last six months and the ways in which commentators in the US and the UK have sought to sow division where none ultimately exists, are brought to the fore here. This is especially important, as the world celebrates 2020 as the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower, the ship on which the Pilgrims sailed to the already inhabited and civilized North American east coast.
‘Ill-informed commentators have accused Black History Month of promoting segregation. I am reminded of the African American intellectual WEB DuBois who wrote on the importance of celebrating racial culture, not in competition or as an aggression to others, but as a means of unifying and sharing for progression of their Republic.
‘DuBois himself understood race as a social, rather than biological category, but he was also clear that ignoring its effects, pretending that race didn’t contribute to people’s life outcomes, served nobody. His celebration of African American history, culture, and individuals, was not an attempt to separate communities, to revise or erase history. Rather, he sought to highlight the contributions of all whose face did not fit the mainstream narrative; and to release the potential of those whose horizons had been limited by centuries of laws, representation, and public discourse.
‘The switch from Columbus to Indigenous Peoples Day, like Black History Month, is a move that draws a people out from the shadows and places them centre-stage.
‘Indigenous Peoples Day is a moment to put Indigenous histories upfront, but more importantly it’s a moment to focus on the Indigenous present, affirming that the ruin wrought since Columbus was not total and that Indigenous communities remain.
‘That dedicated visibility also fights the misperceptions that obscure the realities of Indigenous life today, from the very real poverty experienced, through to the major contributions of Indigenous teachers, lawyers, armed forces personnel, politicians, sportsmen and women, and more.
‘Not unlike the debates around statues that developed during the Black Lives Matter protests, such moves do not erase Columbus’s part of the story, as that is hardwired into the national narrative. What they do is stop that part of the narrative obscuring other histories.’
David Stirrup is Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Kent’s School of English, specializing in post-Imperial Britain’s responsibilities to peoples it both displaced and made treaties with during the colonial era.
In 2019 he launched a new Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies at the University of Kent, drawing on a broad network of institutions in the UK, US, and Canada. This is the first Centre of its kind in the UK.
The University’s Press Office provides the media with expert comments in response to topical news events. Colleagues who would like to learn more about how to contribute their expertise or how the service works should contact the Press Office at pressoffice@kent.ac.uk.