Listen Now: 
Back across the time zones on the other side of the Pacific it is still Columbus Day, when Americans mark the arrival on the continent of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.
Not though in Seattle and Minneapolis some other towns and cities, which have chosen to call the second Monday in October Indigenous Peoples Day.
Waikato University academic Leonie Pihama is in Seattle, Washington on her way home from an indigenous research conference.
She says the change was made just last week by the city council, and there are great celebrations going on in the area’s Native American population.
"So it moves the day from a celebration of someone that brought genocide, ethnocide, majorly oppressive history into this land 500 years ago and shifting it to a day that acknowledges the existence and celebration of indigenous people," Dr Pihama says.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH DR LEONIE PIHAMA CLICK ON THE LINK
http://www.waateanews.com/play_podcast?podlink=MjMwMzI=
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