AUBURN - “Now our minds are one,” children recited throughout the “Thanksgiving Address” at the Auburn Public Theater Saturday.

The words became a slogan since they were repeated after each time the children thanked the earth for a different gift that it gives to people.

“I love how it repeats through the performance; it becomes a heartbeat that reminds us that we are all connected,” Angela Daddabbo, one of the show's producers, said. “It's about the feeling of unity with one another and all of nature.”

From fish and animals to the moon and stars, every gift that Mother Nature gives the world got a moment of thanks during the performance.

The theater adapted the traditional “words before all else” that the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora nations use to thank the earth for its gifts. Someone reads the address before and after each meeting of the Six Nations, Daddabbo said.

“It reminds us that we should be in the spirit of thanksgiving not just this particular day, but every day,” Daddabbo said. “This text helps us to remember that feeling of gratitude all year round.”

The group has been working since the beginning of October to get this performance ready for Thanksgiving, Daddabbo said. Part of Auburn Public Theater's mission is to provide acting classes for children, and this year they decided to do a performance that would coincide with Auburn's holiday parade.

“I saw the 'Thanksgiving Address' while I was at the Matilda Joslyn Gage home in Syracuse,” Daddabbo said. “I picked it up and as soon as I read it and saw the message. I knew it was what we were looking for.”

For each gift, one child would read the traditional words of thanks before performers took the stage to sing and dance about what the gift means to the world.

“We put our minds together as one and thank all the birds who move and fly about over our heads. Each day, they remind us to enjoy and appreciate life,” one performer read from the address. “To all the birds, we send our joyful greetings and thanks.”

Two girls then sang “The Colors of the Wind” from “Pocahontas” while performers, dressed as a tree, a couple of birds and some smaller animals, frolicked on the stage.

Seeing these young children talk about how much people have been given is uplifting, said Linda Vitale, whose granddaughters performed in the show.

“It definitely has a feeling of humanity coming together, saving the earth and getting back to your roots,” choreographer Yvonne Hassett said. “It's just a great experience.”