Our Living Land Acknowledgement

We offer this as an example of what a living land acknowledgement can be. Members of the Hampshire Community are welcome to draw on this and offer their own.

Today, we begin by recognizing the histories and current realities of the land and this place where we gather. We acknowledge that when we gather at the place now called Hampshire College, we are in the ancestral homelands of the Nipmuc (NIP-MUK), Nonotuck (NON-NO-TUCK), and Pocumtuc (POH-CUM-TUCK) Peoples. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present, and future.

We speak our gratitude for nearby waters and lands, here in the valley of the river Kwinitekw (KWIN-IH-TEK-WUH), meaning “beside the long tidal river.” We recognize these lands and waters as important Relations with which we are all interconnected and depend on to sustain life and well-being.

The original peoples of this land have had connections with these lands for millennia and maintain and reclaim relationships to this day. They are part of a vast expanse of Algonquian relations. Over 400 years of colonization, Nipmuc, Nonotuck, and Pocumtuc Peoples were forcibly displaced. In the 17th century, the Nonotuck peoples responded to ongoing settler colonial violence by seeking safety with their kinship connections in surrounding areas. In particular, the Pocumtuc aid was vital to the survival of Nonotuck families. Many others joined their Algonquian (AL-GON-QUIN) relatives to the east, south, west and north. We acknowledge our neighboring Indigenous nations: the Wampanoag (WAHM-PUH-NOG) to the east, the Mohegan (MO-HE-GAN), Pequot (PEA-KWAHT), and Schaghticoke (SKAT-UH-COKE) to the south, the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican (MO-HE-KN) to the west, and the Abenaki (A-BUH-NAA-KEE) to the north.

Let us be mindful: we are on stolen land built up by the stolen labor of enslaved African peoples. Let us be mindful of the ongoing colonial violence that continues to rage across the globe in places like Sudan, Congo, and Palestine, and our complicity in that violence.

We are mindful of broken promises and treaties and the need to repair harm, and make right with all of our relations. Let us commit and recommit to transforming injustice and restoring balance to our living planet. Truth, reconciliation, rematriation, and healing will only come with acknowledgment as a first step, followed by cultural and economic reparations and other restorative actions.

Today, we invite you to think about your own relationship to these lands and the lands you call home. What commitments can you make to move toward right and reciprocal relations with Indigenous Peoples and our shared planet? How can you take responsibility, alongside others, for transforming injustice wherever you find it?