Patric Tariq Mellet is a heritage researcher whose search for his father roused his curiosity to find out who he was, and where he comes from. This journey has resulted in him becoming a subject matter expert on matters relating to the history of South Africa. In this interview, Diana Morat gets to know more about his book entitled, The Lie of 1652. Diana is a presenter at Eldos FM in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, South Africa. Eldorado Park is a township where people of Indigenous as well as slave heritage have been relocated to, approximately 50 years ago, during the time of Apartheid.
It was the Wampanoag People, the people of the first light, that encountered the Pilgrims when they arrived to Turtle Island (North America) from Europe in 1620. Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been celebrated as a national holiday in the United States, mythologizing the violent events that followed European arrival into a story of friendship and mutual sharing. But the reality is that the Wampanoags’ generosity was met with genocide, and this truth has been systematically suppressed in the US education system, government, and popular culture.