First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church • 330 First Parish Rd, Scituate MA 02066

Social Justice Resources

First Parish UU, Scituate MA

Donate to the UUSC Emergency Relief Fund
Support their efforts in Eastern Europe
to meet the needs of Ukrainian refugees

SPRING 2022 FOCUS:

Engagement in educational activities to broaden our knowledge and perspective regarding Indigenous Peoples

Previous events in this series:
  •  Fourth Sunday Donation: On April 24th, plate donations not earmarked for pledges go to support the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, a joint collaborative effort of members of the Assonet Band of Wampanoag, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah and the Herring Pond Band of Wampanoag. Their mission is to return language fluency to the Wampanoag Nation as a principal means of expression. 
  • Documentary Screening and Discussion: On April 9, 2022, First Parish presented a screening of the documentary Up Heartbreak Hill, from filmmaker Erica Scharf.    
  • Book Discussion: On Feb 7, 2022, First Parish held a moderated discussion of "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Resources about Indigenous Peoples

For anyone who is interested in learning more about Indigenous Peoples on their own, our resource lists contain suggestions from different types of media (articles, movies, podcasts, TV shows and books). Please also check First Parish Scituate's newsletters and social media pages for updates including calls to action, local events, and opportunities to connect with Indigenous Peoples in our area.
ACTION:
Articles:
Video:
  • Here is a list of documentaries on pbs.org that raise up the voices of Native Americans and Alaska Natives:
    • Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On - Available Nov. 22. Experience the story of the Oscar-winning Indigenous artist from her rise to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene through her six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator and artist.
    • Alter-NATIVE: Kitchen - Meet three talented young Indigenous chefs — Brian Yazzie, a Navajo/Diné chef originally from Arizona, now based in Minnesota; Kalā Domingo, a Hawaiian culinary student and heir to his dad’s catering throne; and Hillel Echo-Hawk, a Pawnee-Athabaskian chef and caterer in Seattle – all preparing foods from their native cultures that sustained their communities for generations.
    • If Cities Could Dance: Indigenous Enterprise Brings Powwow Dance to the World Stage - Indigenous Enterprise, made up of a new generation of Native American Powwow dancers from across the U.S. and Canada, is on a mission to bring Native culture to new heights and audiences.
    • A Qayaq to Carry Us - Get to know the Sugpiat community as they come home to Kodiak Island in Alaska to learn and build Indigenous knowledge. Merging Indigenous knowledge with western science, Dr. Sven Haakanson and other Sugpiat people in Akhiok pass along the ingenuity of traditional knowledge in a living context to young Sugpiat while building a kayak from wood gathered on the treeless beaches of Cape Alitak.
    • Local USA, Season 6. Ep 8: In Their Element - The film features indigenous leaders from four communities across the United States, each working to protect a different natural resource: earth, air, fire, and water. For people whose existence is inseparable from their native land, climate change is not a tale of the future - it is the present.
    • Conscience Point, Season 21, Episode 4 - A Native American activist fights to protect her tribe from the onslaughts of development in the Hamptons.
  • Bounty  Penobscot parents and children read and react to one of many government-issued bounty proclamations that led to settlers hunting and scalping indigenous men, women, and children. (9 minute video)
  • *A Conversation with Native Americans on Race (6 minute video)
  • Dear Georgina A Passamaquoddy woman who was removed from her home and indigenous community in 1942 tries to fill in some of the details of her early life in foster care. (14 minute video)
  • *Tedx Talk "We the People" by Mark Charles (Navajo): "The three most misunderstood words in US history" (17 minute video)
  • *Dawnland – Documentary about the investigation by the first official Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States into the removal of Native American children from their homes in Maine to teach them how to be white. Next online screening March 9, 2022. Emmy award winner (86 minutes).
  • Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World - 2017 documentary by filmmaker Catherine Bainbridge examining the role of Native Americans in contemporary music history.  She exposes a critical missing chapter, revealing how indigenous musicians helped influence popular culture.  Available on Amazon Prime, also in local libraries.  (1 hour 42 minutes)
  • Reservation Dogs – Sitcom about Native American Teens streaming on Hulu.  Link here is to an article about the series.

Audio:
Social Media 
The 21-Day Challenge
  • The 21-Day Racial Equity Indigenous Challenge  Many of the resources included above (*asterisked) appear in America & Moore's comprehensive list of resources and ideas that challenge non-Indigenous people to select one activity per day for 3 weeks that will broaden your knowledge and perspective regarding Indigenous Peoples.

Social Justice Organizations   First Parish members support and participate in these groups:

350.org  (Hingham)

350 Mass is a statewide, grassroots, member-led, campaign-focused network committed to a just transition for a climate-safe world. Members meet regularly to plan and work together to mobilize riends and neighbors to hold elected officials accountable as cities and towns transition off of fossil fuels. Their work ranges from educational programs to the passage of climate action plans, to pushing for 100% renewable content in community choice aggregation. 

UU The Vote

UU the Vote was imagined as an “all hands on deck” project to articulate UU values in the public square and activate and organize Unitarian Universalists on a mass scale.

South Shore Peer Recovery

South Shore Peer Recovery is creating a safe space in the heart of the community where people with lived experience join together to build skills, provide support and find hope in recovery. All programs are free.

UU Mass Action

Since 2006, UU Mass Action has been mobilizing the 142 UU congregations in Massachusetts to confront oppression. Their pathways to justice are selected by engaging in our coalition partners shared priorities, assessing legislative momentum and identifying who are most vulnerable people in our Commonwealth.

Scituate STRIDE

STRIDE works within the community of Scituate, Massachusetts to affirm the value of representation, inclusion, diversity, and equity for the well-being and success of the community.

UU Service Committee (UUSC)

The UUSC is a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization advancing human rights. Striving to center the voices of people most affected by injustice, UUSC creates eye-to-eye relationships with frontline grassroots movements across the world that support marginalized communities in determining their steps for the future.

The Scituate Food Pantry

The Scituate Food Pantry works with churches, clubs, schools and individuals throughout the town to bring awareness of the issue of hunger in our community. Since 1993, they have assisted over 500 families totaling approximately 1100 people. Currently, The Pantry serves 250+ families who are eligible to receive a monthly order of nutritious non-perishable food. The Scituate Food Pantry receives no government funding but relies solely on the generous donations of businesses, organizations, schools and the people of our community.

UU Urban Ministry

The UU Urban Ministry is a social justice organization based in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Their work includes safer shelter and workforce development programming for survivors of domestic violence; academic enrichment for Boston-area youth of color; Arts and Humanities programming grounded in a social justice message that amplifies artists and historians of color in our neighborhoods.

South Shore Resource and Advocacy Center

SSRAC is a nonprofit, community-based domestic violence program that has been assisting survivors of domestic violence and their families for more than 40 years. SSRAC is committed to providing comprehensive services for intimate partner and familial violence, as well as victim services and prevention for survivors and loved ones of impaired driving crashes, and loved ones who have lost someone to homicide. Services are free and confidential to all.

The Massachusetts Bail Fund

The Massachusetts Bail Fund is a non-judgmental, abolitionist bail fund, posting bail for people regardless of charge or court history. They share grassroots organizations’ abolitionist vision of a future where communities have the resources to address harm when it happens; seek community accountability; have healthcare, healing and trauma services; employment and economic opportunity; education; and housing. They work toward abolishing pretrial detention alongside fellow abolitionists who are leading community organizing to end cycles of harm and poverty and create processes for healing and well-being.

Haley House

Haley House is dedicated to helping those made vulnerable by the harshest effects of inequality to move toward wholeness and economic independence. They offer radical solutions through collaborative living and working environments, including the Bakery Cafe, soup kitchen, food pantry, urban agriculture programs, and a live-in community, all based in Boston's South End and Roxbury neighborhoods.

NeighborWorks Housing Solutions

At NeighborWorks Housing Solutions, health and well-being start with having a safe and affordable home in a stable and opportunity-rich community. In collaboration with partners in the public and private sectors, they promote these conditions through services that include: rental assistance; emergency financial help; shelter and homelessness prevention; first-time homebuyer education and counseling; financial coaching; foreclosure prevention; affordable residential and small business loans; and construction and management of high-quality rental housing across Southern Massachusetts.