Portland Parks Foundation Land Acknowledgement as found on their web page which includes links to history and current resources
The Portland Metro area rests on traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River. Indigenous people have created communities and summer encampments to harvest and enjoy the plentiful natural resources of the area for the last 11,000 years.
We want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.
We also acknowledge the systemic policies of genocide, relocation, and assimilation that still impact many Indigenous/Native American families today. As settlers and guests on these lands, we respect the work of Indigenous leaders and families, and pledge to make ongoing efforts recognize their knowledge, creativity, and resilience.
Pacific Northwest College of Art land acknowledgement
(as it appears at the bottom of the dean’s emails)
PNCA recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose lands the school now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are committed to practices and policies that center Indigenous knowledge, creativity, resilience, and resistance.
Willamette Land Acknowledgement as found on their web page on land acknowledgements, which includes guidelines
We are gathered on the land of the Kalapuya, who today are represented by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, whose relationship with this land continues to this day. We offer gratitude for the land itself, for those who have stewarded it for generations, and for the opportunity to study, learn, work, and be in community on this land. We acknowledge that our University’s history, like many others, is fundamentally tied to the first colonial developments in the Willamette Valley. Finally, we respectfully acknowledge and honor past, present, and future Indigenous students of Willamette.
some thoughts on landacknowledgements and one I wrote
edited but mainly written in 2020 while working for MESD outdoor school
Starting with rationale
I strongly believe it is beneficial to open with this, without it there may be listeners who in effect tune out or just don’t know what to do with the information.
I also believe it is okay to use I statements and relate it to yourself, we are a part of the community that we read this to, more so we are leaders--when we step up and read a land acknowledgment we are taking charge.
Every restorative circle that I have led with 6th graders I say “This may seem silly that we are going to sit in a circle and talk about our feelings” I believe it is important to address this as it is something they are most likely already thinking. It is a way to combat the culture which made it a norm to not share your feelings. If it helps for the sake of the argument to address that all of these circles were with 6th-grade boys then let’s recognize that.
Part of me fears that the applicability of this is rooted in talking to middle schoolers, but there is a school of thought in the art world that wall tags, artist statements, and the likes should be written so 4th graders can understand (I don’t agree with this for a number of reasons but I’m using it here to give myself a bit more justification)
I say this because I myself, someone who wants to fight for social justice, felt awkward every time a land acknowledgment was made by a non-native person. And It wasn’t until I read the guide to land acknowledgments that it clicked as to what can be done
I’m open to feedback especially in the word choice and amount said because it’s hard to write out something that I imagine as conversational. Also maybe more importantly I’m open to a contrary opinion but I warn you I will need a lot of convincing so really tell me why without beating around the bush. At the very least I think that something could be done to reach this goal of “breaking the ice”; it doesn't have to be this.
We open with this land acknowledgment as a small step,
It may be the case for most of you that you feel some discomfort when listening to me, a non-native person reading this or simply that it is awkward in a more general sense, these feelings are real and I’d like to address it. It may be that you harbor no ill will, it may be that you empathize with those harmed in history books, it may be that you recognize the treatment of indigenous people as wrong and want to do something.
I say to you we can do something, this is a place to start.
The more that we give and listen to these land acknowledgments the more that we normalize the recognition that the land we are on was violently and illegally taken. It is a small step that may seem to do little to nothing in terms of actual retribution. But if we make this a practice, if this can become commonplace, then we will all, collectively become a lot closer to retributions and great change
Deconstructing a land acknowledgement
I seem to have lost the link to where I copy and pasted this from, but I remember it being the guide on land acknowledgements, like the one that started it all.
Unfortunately you can’t just copy, paste, and search this paragraph, because it just comes up with every organization that filled in the blanks*… something terribly ironic about my inability to honor the native people who wrote this guide in the first place, something worse about the groups who don’t credit where they got it from... at least I’m using quotation marks
*I’d recommend using this guide as a way to write your own, maybe my breakdown can help
“Every community owes its existence and vitality to generations from around the world who contributed their hopes, dreams, and energy to making the history that led to this moment.
Some were brought here against their will, some were drawn to leave their distant homes in hope of a better life, and some have lived on this land for more generations than can be counted. Truth and acknowledgment are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of heritage and difference. We begin this effort to acknowledge what has been buried by honoring the truth. We are standing on the ancestral lands of the ________________ People [if possible, add more specific detail about the nature of the occupied land]. We pay respects to their elders past and present. Please take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement that bring us together here today. And please join us in uncovering such truths at any and all public events.”
Why land is important in both a physical and social sense, how it connects to our lives
Human beings lives are intertwined in the long-standing history of the land long before you and I, “since time immemorial” (It was home to indigenous people, minorities were exploited to create the new foundation)
Why acknowledging the truth is important
Begin acknowledgment of specific people of specific land. Put in specific details
Recognize the truth, the history that is attached to the land and what happened to the people
The goal of the land acknowledgment and all land acknowledgments. What to do with this information, looking to the future
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The importance of land cannot be understated, it is connected to our lives in both physical and social senses. Our existence is fundamentally tied to the land--to the earth. Everything about this moment is tied to past events where people lived lives and made decisions, just like all of us do every day. It’s important to think about these things; choices and actions, cause and effect. We must work to uncover the truth of our past and present and study and reckon with it so we can then imagine what we want the future to be. Today we practice our uncovering of the truth by acknowledging the land we are on--since time immemorial the portland metro area has been the traditional homeland of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many others. They were and continue to be stewards of the environment that we look at today. We want to honor the truth of this unceded land and the coerced treaties that forcibly pushed indigenous peoples out, as well as honor their perseverance as they live on today. By itself this may do little in terms of actual retribution, instead, we give this acknowledgment as a part of a broader effort. The more we all give and listen to these land acknowledgments the more easily it can become normalized as a part of a broader public consciousness.
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uncovering the truth in our past and imagining what we want the future to be.
From NEA (national education association)
• Offer recognition and respect.
• Counter the “doctrine of discovery” with the true story of the people who were already here.
• Create a broader public awareness of the history that has led to this moment.
• Begin to repair relationships with Native communities and with the land.
• Support larger truth-telling and reconciliation efforts.
• Remind people that colonization is an ongoing process, with Native lands still occupied due to deceptive and broken treaties and practices of eminent domain and other mechanisms intended to benefit government or corporate America.
• Take a cue from Indigenous protocols, opening up spaces with reverence and respect.
• Inspire ongoing action and relationships.