This past November, Pratt proudly announced its Living Land Acknowledgement and encouraged faculty, staff, and students to honor the Lenape people and recognize occupied land by beginning all gatherings with it.
Over the past two years, students, faculty, and staff in the Pratt community have been working in collaboration with the Brooklyn Lenape Center facilitators to craft a formal acknowledgment of the Institute’s presence on Native American land. Under the guidance of Pratt faculty member Amanda Huynh, a series of workshops focused on creating a community-sourced land acknowledgment to be used across the Institute and the curriculum to build a deeper relationship with the land and place we occupy.
During National Native American Heritage Month in November, the Center for Equity and Inclusion hosted “Community Dialogue: You’re on Indigenous Land” to present the work completed so far and bring more voices into the conversation in preparation for the announcement of the institutional land acknowledgment on November 30.
However, there was more to the process. This acknowledgment is not static. It, along with resources and research compiled by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Pratt Libraries, is intended to inspire us and others to recognize Indigenous homelands and territories, connecting with where we are, Lenapehoking, and integrating land acknowledgment and Indigenous knowledge into teaching and learning practices.
The Indigenous Knowledge and Land Workshop Series was sponsored through Pratt Institute Strategic Funding and supported by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
—Julianna Dow
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Native & Indigenous Resources
Native American and Indigenous Peoples Resource Guide