Overview of Pigsgusset Initiative
Solidarity with Indigenous People
The history and current contributions of Indigenous people have been all but erased from Watertown. One way to promote un-erasure is by supporting the Pigsgusset Initiative.
Pigsgusset Initiative is a working group of Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment dedicated to healing and justice through the un-erasure of Indigenous peoples from the place now called Watertown. Pigsgusset is the name for Watertown used by its original inhabitants from the Pequossette band of the Massachusett tribe. This is an English language corruption of an Indigenous word, which to the best of our knowledge, means “the meadows at the widening of the river.”
We work to educate ourselves and our neighbors about the original peoples of this land, settler colonialism and its relationship to genocide, erasure and un-erasure, land disposession and the land back movement; and, the history of the place we call home.
We work to challenge and change false narratives that fill our public spaces by transforming local government imagery such as the town seal; local history as conveyed on the Watertown website; public markers, monuments and place names; and public holidays. It is our longer term goal to introduce more content about Indigenous peoples, both historically and today, into local school curricula.
As members of Pigsgusset Initiative, we are each also committed to our own ongoing learning and unlearning. We stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and aim to build a culture of practice that can hold hard history as we transform ourselves and the larger society.
→ Please get in touch (https://watertowncitizens.org/working-groups/pigsgusset-initiative/) if you want to be added to the email list to learn about upcoming events and actions and/or join our monthly Pigsgusset Initiative meetings.
→ Read the Watertown False Narratives call to action. (https://bit.ly/38wWpTD)
→ Offer meaningful, not performative, land acknowledgements that come from the heart and are part of a broader strategy of change. Here are resources that may be helpful in developing and offering a land acknowledgment, with attention to factors to be mindful of:
“Honor Native Land: A Guide and Call to Acknowledgment,” (https://usdac.us/nativeland) U.S. Department of Arts and Culture
“A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgment,” (https://nativegov.org/a-guide-to-indigenous-land-acknowledgment/) Native Governance Center
Debbie Reese, “Are you Planning to Do a Land Acknowledgment?” (https://bit.ly/3kGmjtM) American Indians in Children’s Literature Blog, March 19, 2019
Upstander Project: https://upstanderproject.org/land
While important, land acknowledgments are only a first step for non-Native people to contribute to un-erasure, be in active solidarity with indigenous struggles, and take steps toward the repair of historic and current harms done.
→ Learn about and ask your legislators to co-sponsor the MA Indigenous Legislative Agenda! (http://maindigenousagenda.org/)