Mayflower400™️ Sept 2020 - Celebration of the colonization of America

[FATEdestiny]

www.mayflower400uk.org

"an ambitious commemoration will mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s pioneering voyage,telling the story of a ship and its passengers - a group of people that a remarkable 30million+ US citizens have descended from"

Do we think this will go ahead?

It is glorifying and celebrating the colonalisation of America by Christopher Colombus and his ship.

It's got some big sponsors. Arts Council England, Lottery Heratige Fund, Royal Navy, Visit Britain, Visit England. Looks to be a very big event starting September 2020.

Are they hoping #BLM won't stretch to colonialism?

Oh, god. Here we go......

Christopher Columbus was dead long before the Mayflower sailed.

Mayflower 1620.

Columbus was Born:1451,Genoa, Italy

Died:20 May 1506,Valladolid, Spain

Mayflower 2020 isn't about Columbus, who was a late C15th Spaniard.

The event is about understanding and analysing and involves input from First Nations and Native people.

You a little confused I think

I thought it was actually Columbus's ship when I first read it. My mistake.

It is about taking Europeans over to colonize America though. It doesn't read well in the current climate.

Mayflower 400 will champion the values of freedom, faith and personal liberty that informed the original journey, and which continue to be articulated in the special relationship between the UK, US and Netherlands. At the same time, the commemoration will recognise the impact of the Mayflower’s journey on Native American communities and address themes of colonialism and migration, providing an accurate, inclusive account of the Mayflower’s legac

www.mayflower400uk.org/about/

Have you read the information properly?
They seem v willing to address the negative impact not just glorify colonialism

This will absolutely go ahead. I recommend you take a look in further detail at who is involved with this. I'm heavily involved and it will be taught from all aspects. A lot of time has gone into this. It's so sad that it can't happen this year, it was all very exciting really.

@Embracelife thank you. You are exactly right.

For an excellent re reading of little house on the prairie read Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Which touches on these themes as well
Makes you see LHOTP in a new light.

There is a lot of work by people to unpick the earlier notions embedded in colonialism and to show how much popular culture has embedded these ideas.

The mayflower 400 project also looks to be trying to redress some of the balances

A lesson op in reading properly first?

I appreciate that a lot of time has gone into this. But celebrating colonialism isn't ok.

I smell a whitewash.

I don't see much of the website dedicated to the wars with Native Americans who did not wish their land to be colonised. I see a huge celebration of the 120 Europeans who won the wars and colonised the country... with the Natives getting a bit-part of recognition in this "celebration"

There is info o

This village they had stumbled upon was oncecalled Patuxet but had since been deserted following the outbreak of disease.

This was a legacy of what the Native American people had already experienced from European colonists in the 17thcentury.

The native inhabitants of the region around Plymouth Colony were the various groups of the Wampanoag people and other tribes, who had lived there for some 10,000 years before the Europeans arrived.

The Great Dying..etc

www.mayflower400uk.org/education/the-mayflower-story/

Read the whole page
Yes I agree it s about the Mayflower but also you can read about the great dying and the diseases brought over.
It s not as one sided as maybd previously

www.mayflower400uk.org/news/2020/february/major-native-american-artists-announced-for-settlement-project-in-plymouth/

You could suggest they give more prominence to text like
Below.. but it isnt fair to say it isnt there.
Modern Response

The Native American activist group, The United American Indians of New England, continues to raise awareness of racism towards Native Americans and the consequences of colonialism. When the Wampanoag leader, Frank James, was informed that his speech was inappropriate and inflammatory for the annual Thanksgiving ceremony 1970, he refused to read their revised speech.

Supporters followed James to hear him give his original speech on Cole’s Hill, next to the statue of Ousamequin. This became the first National Day of Mourning, which continues today in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the same day as Thanksgiving

I see some effort going Into telling the bigger story and using the anniversary as a platform
A step in the right direction

I've read the whole page.

Taken as a whole it paints the colonialists in a positive light - helpful, kind even. Whitewash and not a fair representation. There are brief concessions given to descriptions of atrocities on the website, but nothing like the respect the Native Americans deserve for the persecutions they went through.

If this project is to go ahead, it needs a complete rethink to put those repressed centre stage.

I don't think it should go ahead though. It's glorifying repression based on race - how can that be OK?

None if the home page makes any mention of Native Americans.

And the story itself is openly described as colonization. As though there is nothing offensive or racist about colonalisation.

Let us not forget the true history here:

www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/american-indian-wars