Elspeth Slayter and Lisa Johnson
Editors’ Land Acknowledgement Statement and Commentary
At Salem State University, we work to illuminate the ways in which our university came to occupy the land upon which we engage in teaching and learning. We also recognize the limitations of land acknowledgements and support the fact that the use of land acknowledgements does not take away from the need for reparations in the form of giving land back (see the #LandBack movement).
The land occupied by Salem State University is part of Naumkeag, a traditional and ancestral homeland of the Pawtucket band of the Massachusett. We acknowledge the genocide and forced removal of the people of Naumkeag and their kin and we recognize the ongoing colonization and dispossession of Indigenous homelands. We respect and honor the Massachusett tribe and the many Indigenous Peoples who continue to care for the land upon which we gather. We recognize our own responsibility to this land we occupy. We commit to continuously learning and sharing its history and that of the Massachusett and other Indigenous People who have been and remain here. We commit to develop and implement initiatives that work toward repairing the injustices continuously being committed on the Indigenous People of this land. We commit to making our own environmental impact on this land as sustainable as possible. We commit to a renewed and ongoing engagement with the Massachusett and all Indigenous People in and around Salem State.
May this acknowledgement also mark a commitment to continuously learn and share the history and stories of the Massachusett and other Indigenous People who have been and remain here, develop and implement initiatives that work toward repairing the injustices continuously being committed on the Indigenous People of this land, make our own environmental impact on this land as sustainable as possible, and to engage with the Massachusett and all Indigenous People in and around the Salem State community (for more information see: Salem State University Land Acknowledgement and The People Here: Interrogating Indigenous Dispossession of the Land Occupied by Salem State University).
Resources: Native Organizations and Activist Movements:
Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness
North American Indian Center of Boston
First Light – Repairing, returning at the speed of trust.
LANDBACK – Building lasting Indigenous sovereignty.
NDN Collective: Defend. Develop. Decolonize.
Land Reparations & Indigenous Solidarity Toolkit
