A ritual is an act of preservation — the simple but sacred recognition of the shoulders we stand upon when we participate in a given rite or tradition. We cannot fully engage in the celebrations of the present without first acknowledging the context of our past.

With this in mind, we’d like to direct your attention to The Thanksgiving Address, the central invocation of the Haudenosaunee people. Because, in the words of Robin Wall Kimmerer, “you cannot hear the Thanksgiving Address without feeling wealthy. Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires [and] that’s good medicine for land and people alike.”