INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY FOR HUB
Janey gets pushback for holiday change
Columbus Day is now Indigenous Peoples Day in Boston, Acting Mayor Kim Janey declared in an immediately controversial move.
“Observing Indigenous Peoples Day is about replacing the colonial myths passed down from generation to generation with the true history of the land upon which our nation was founded,” Janey said, making the Hub the latest of several Massachusetts cities to switch as she signed an executive order on Wednesday in City Hall.
Columbus Day is a state and federal holiday, and the city’s move doesn’t overrule those observations in Boston.
Christopher Columbus has been a hot-button subject for years. Some Natives and other activists say he brought misery and violence to the Native American peoples he found when he made his trip across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. But others feel differently, saying the fabled explorer is a point of pride for Italians and Italian-Americans, and the statue comes from a time when Italian immigrants were trying to celebrate their own heritage.
Columbus-centric controversy flared up again last year when someone once again lopped off the head of the statue of the man in Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park in the heavily Italian North End. After several emotional community meetings, the city decided to remove the statue from the park and gave it to the Knights of Columbus to keep on private land in the neighborhood.
Chali’ Naru Dones, a Native activist who stood next to Janey as she signed the order, said, “It feels amazing. But now, more work. Now we want the state, and we want it federal.” Wednesday’s move — or, more specifically, even the hint that it was coming, after Janey put out her public schedule Tuesday night saying that there would be an event involving an executive order for Indigenous Peoples Day — immediately drew pushback.
Diane Modica, a former city councilor now with the Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, put out a statement decrying “Acting Mayor Janey’s erasure of Italian Americans,” and saying that while the suffering of Natives should be acknowledged, doing so shouldn’t involve taking away a source of pride for the Italians.
At the signing, Modica called out a question: “What about the Italian-Americans?”
A couple of young people in the row of chairs in front of them stood up and stared them down, leading Modica to tell them, “We’re not going to do anything violent.”
Janey then responded, praising Italian-Americans and adding, “Justice is not a zero sum game, we can lift up the experiences of indigenous peoples, and we can also respect Italian-Americans.”
Asked why Janey didn’t hold any public hearings, she said she didn’t need to, and said she called some North End groups before the move.
But City Councilor Lydia Edwards, who represents the North End and East Boston, which has a sizable Italian-American population — and is running for a state senate seat that would also include Italian heavy Revere — panned Janey’s move, saying, “Today’s unilateral action by the acting mayor was a surprise to me and I don’t believe it encourages the honest, transparent healing conversation we need.”