Support Bedford's Indigenous Peoples Day Event!

On May 15, 2021, Bedford became the twentieth community in Massachusetts to rename the second Monday of October to Indigenous Peoples Day. Now it's time to celebrate!

Help us make our first annual Indigenous Peoples Day event a success! Your donations will help cover the cost of a free, outdoor, family-friendly Bomba celebration!

Bedford's Innaugural Indigenous Peoples Day Bomba Celebration

Saturday, October 2, 2021, 3:00-4:30 pm

Middlesex Community College, Springs Road, Bedford, MA 01730

Join us in honoring the history, culture, and living presence of Indigenous Taino peoples of the Caribbean. This event will feature remarks by educator and Indigenous rights activist Claudia Fox Tree (Taino/Arawak) whose years of community engagement laid the groundwork for the successful passage of Indigenous Peoples Day in Bedford. Boston-based BOMBAntillana will lead a fun and participatory celebration of Bomba, a traditional music and dance form that was developed over 400 years ago in Boriken (Puerto Rico) by enslaved and free Taino and African Bantu peoples. Having originated on sugar cane plantations of Spanish colonizers, Bomba was, and continues to be, a powerful means of creative expression, healing, and resistance.

This event will take place on the central quad at Middlesex Community College, Springs Rd., in Bedford. It is free and family-friendly, with plenty of parking available. Bring your own chairs/blankets for seating. In the event of rain, the program will take place in a tent on site or in the nearby East Café. Masks required. For more information, contact [email redacted].

Sponsored by Indigenous Peoples Day Bedford, Bedford Embraces Diversity, and the Parents Diversity Council. We are grateful to Middlesex Community College for generously granting the use of their facilities.