"The memories come back in flashes: the ink-black night, the whipping cold, the dark waves lapping at the side of the boat as Tashina Banks Rama stepped on board. Tashina was only a child when it started. But every November, on Thanksgiving Day, she and her younger sister would blink awake in the early hours of the morning to join her parents on the edge of the San Francisco Bay. It was always freezing, always quiet, at least at first."
"And as the streetlights and towers of the city faded behind them, a sudden drumbeat would rupture the silence. Before them loomed a jutting rock, Alcatraz Island, surging out of the waves. The air felt heavy with intention as the boat lurched forward. All of a sudden, you have this feeling, this presence of spirituality and ceremony that this is something serious we're doing, Tashina, now 51, recalls."
Families gather each Thanksgiving before dawn to ferry to Alcatraz Island for a sunrise ceremony marked by drumbeats, Pendleton blankets and star quilts. Participants experience a palpable spirituality and communal safety as they honour Indigenous ancestors and mark survival of tribal nations. For nearly fifty years the island has hosted this tradition that blends gratitude and protest on a site known for its federal penitentiary history. Proposed plans to reopen the prison threaten access and continuity of the ceremony, risking disruption of an intergenerational practice and the cultural memory tied to the island.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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