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We live, work, learn and commune on stolen land.
This land on which we gather is the occupied/unceded/seized territory of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Golden Hill Paugussett, and Schaghticoke peoples, who have stewarded the land now known as Hartford and its surrounding areas through generations. We also acknowledge the tribes with us in spirit and ancestors: the Saukiag, the Podunk and the Tunixis.
We acknowledge the grave harm that colonialism brought to these lands, in particular the erasure of both indigenous and African identities not only under slavery, but via racist laws that segregated all peoples into binary classification of “white” and “black”.
We honor the spirits and ancestors who have lived-- and do live, now-- at these intersections of identity and experience.
This acknowledgment is the very beginning of a process of learning our obligations as guests in this territory. We invite you to ask yourselves, as we are, these questions: What are the Indigenous protocols involved in being a guest, what are our responsibilities? What responsibilities do our hosts have towards us, and are we making space for those responsibilities to be exercised? How will we incorporate what we learn from our hosts? To what extent are our activities and events benefitting our hosts?”
2 mash.an.tuck.et pee.kwot
3 east.ern. pee.kwot
4 skat.ih.kohk
5 gold.en. hill po.gaw.sett