Walk for a New Dawn
Change the State Flag and Seal
For more than 50 years Indigenous leaders have been calling for the flag and seal of Massachusetts to be changed. One quarter of Massachusetts’ 351 communities have signed onto a grassroots campaign calling for the state flag’s controversial iconography to be changed. Maura Healy is dragging her feet on finding a new state emblem. The Western-Massachusetts based Change the Mass Flag movement is part of a decades-long effort to replace the state flag and is embarking on a walk across the state to join with and educate communities regarding the compelling need for this change.
A growing group of activists and social justice organizations have joined with Change the Mass Flag in organizing the Walk for a New Dawn. The walk will leave from Williamstown on July 24th and will proceed across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as part of an educational campaign about the true history of the relations between the colonial settler society and the Indigenous Nations of Dawnland, the area we now call Massachusetts.
The walk is timed to arrive at the confluence of the Kwinekw and the Roanasiatok rivers, which meet at Wissitinewag, the GreatFalls, in time to join the Pocumtuck Homelands Festival, an annual event sponsored by the Nolumbeka Project, honoring the living culture, art and history of regional Indigenous Nations on August 1st and 2nd.
The walk will continue on to the Boston Common and statehouse, arriving no later than August 13th. Walkers will travel in the spirit of non violence, carrying banners, signs and literature urging motorists and bystanders to listen to Indigenous Voices and demand meaningful movement of the Mass Indigenous Legislative Agenda. In addition the walk will raise awareness and solidarity with Community Land and Water Coalition’s ongoing campaign to halt sand mining operations in the fragile ecosystems of the sand barrens around Carver/Plymouth sacred to the Herring Pond Wampanoag.
The Walk for a New Dawn stepped off at 9am Friday, July 24 from the Rt 2 border crossing at Petersburg, New York and Williamstown, Massachusetts. The community, walkers, supporters and media are invited to gather at this time as well. Supporters are asked to bring letters to Governor Healy expressing their desire for the change in the mass flag and seal and all aspects of the Indigenous Legislative Agenda. Letters will be collected along the walk and hand delivered to the Governor at the end of the walk.
The current walk itinerary, which is subject to change, is posted here.
