Canadian Thanksgiving History 

--By Medina Birani, BSW work-study student

Happy Thanksgiving and long weekend! While we appreciate spending time with our family and friends, eating good food, or just enjoying an extra day off this weekend, it is important to reflect on Canada's history regarding the Thanksgiving holiday.  

Canadian Thanksgiving is rooted in Canada's Indigenous values. First Nations across Turtle Island have traditions for giving thanks for surviving the winter and receiving crops as a reward for their hard work. The traditions also included feasting, prayer, dance, potluck, and other ceremonies. 

These traditions of Thanksgiving started long before the arrival of European settlers and colonialism.  Many people are more familiar with the story of the "first" Thanksgiving celebrated in 1621 after British colonists arrived starving and unfamiliar with the land and how to find food, then being able to receive help from the Wampanoag nation. It was a coming together of Indigenous Peoples helping colonizers. In contempt of the positive nature of the first Thanksgiving with colonists, their relationship deteriorated over the years through colonialism.   

Brian Rice, who is a professor at the University of Winnipeg and a member of the Mohawk Nation states, "Today, many Indigenous people feel "ambivalent" towards the holiday. Because for a lot of people, it isn't a celebration, and certainly the original people who had that first Thanksgiving, the Wampanoags and all of those other groups, the Powhatans, obviously not. Many of them don't even exist any longer." (Rice, 2017) 

This 2023 Thanksgiving, spend time reflecting, educating yourself, and talking to family and friends about Indigenous culture in Canada.

References  

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/thanksgiving-traditions-indigenous-canada-1.6207114 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/indigenous-thanksgiving-history-1.4345348 

https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/arts-culture-society/the-history-of-thanksgiving-in-canada