Giving Thanks Ceremony
"After more than seven years of a most grueling fight to secure a place from which a
platform of restoration can be launched for South Africa's First Indigenous Peoples, the time
has come to give thanks. We give thanks for the faithfulness of the Creator, whom
we now call to bless the anchorage the Khoi and San have prayed for since their lands,
language, culture and heritage were forcefully stripped from them at the dawn of colonialism."
These are the sentiments of Hilary Jane Solomon, secretary of
the Western Cape First Nations Collective Trust, the First Nations partner
in the Riverlands development, near Observatory, Cape Town, as she explained
the reasoning behind a blessing ceremony of the Riverlands First Nations Heritage
Precinct by leaders from South Africa and abroad.
"This place of sanctuary, anchorage and restoration stands as a testimony to the
resilience of the First Nations peoples and leadership from across our country who did not waver,
who answered the call of history to stand steadfast in our right of return to the
lands of our ancestors. “It is a reminder to everyone that we are still dignified peoples
firmly grounded in our faith, despite every injustice we have suffered in this land where
our forebears were the first stewards and custodians of what was once a most beautiful
and bountiful paradise", Solomon stated.
The decision to gather in a festival of thanksgiving
is the first step of giving all honour and glory to Almighty God, for the realisation of what is recorded in
the Holy Bible in Jeremiah 29:11, where the prophet
reminds the broken, dispersed, oppressed and discarded people of Almighty Gods faithfulness saying:
"And I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope
and a future."
The thanksgiving ceremony of First Nations elders and spiritual leaders at the First Nations
Heritage Centre at Riverlands comes as one full annual lunar cycle is completed - the turning of the
sod for the construction of the heritage precinct occurring on the New Moon on 20 March 2024 to
the ceremony of blessing and thanksgiving on 14 March, when the Full Moon will set gently over the
First Nations Heritage Centre and precinct.
"This is the blessing from our Almighty God, the
realisation of everything for which you have all
worked so hard, with so much dedication and commitment to rebuilding our people", stated Queen
Katrina Esau, the head of the indigenous San Royal
House of N//n#e.
She made this pronouncement as she prayed for
safe passage of the Western Cape First Nations Collective delegation, which had taken the journey from
Cape Town to report in person on the progress with
the precinct.
Ouma Katrina and many other elders of the Khoi
and the San have been resolute, over more than
seven years in supporting the work of the Western
Cape First Nations Collective, which, right at the outset made a decision, as an act of indigenous cultural
agency, to secure a permanent place of anchorage
for First Nation descendants in the ancient territories
of the Gorinhaiqua Cape Khoi peoples.
The purpose of securing the First Nations Heritage Precinct, as part of the agreement with the
Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust, the developer of Riverlands, was to create a sovereign
space where the heritage, history, culture and indigenous knowledge systems of South Africa's
foundational peoples could be proudly showcased to South Africans and the peoples of the world.
"It is time now, before anything else, before all the many plans for the Heritage precinct
are put into action, to put first things first, to come in humility and give thanks to
Almighty God and to seek the guidance and the blessing of the Creator in all we seek to accomplish.",
stated Paramount Chief Reggie Boesak, chaplain of the Khoi and San Resurgence who will lead the
ceremony of Blessing and Thanksgiving.
