Project History

In this paper, Felicia argued that Indigenous Land Acknowledgements should become commonplace in mainstream museums in the United States. These statements represent a small but meaningful first step toward addressing the harm caused by these institutions’ problematic collecting practices and inaccurate representations of Indigenous peoples.

New Red Order Presents: The Savage Philosophy of Endless Acknowledgement, at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Land Acknowledgements were being practiced in spoken form at the museum and this is believed to be the first instance that a Land Acknowledgement appeared in written form in print for the museum, extending conversations around their ongoing Land Acknowledgement processes and commitments to Indigenous people.

You can find the archived version of the initial website here. This website housed the Acknowledgement Guide, as well as a preliminary set of links to resources.

Acknowledgement Guide finalfinal

An online panel hosted by the Field Museum, featuring Debra Yepa-Pappan (Jemez Pueblo/Korean), Heather Miller (Wyandotte), Felicia Garcia (Samala Chumash), and Meranda Roberts (Yerington Paiute/Chicana).

You can find the online recording here.

Find the Decolonization rider here.

In the fall of 2021, Professor Jane Anderson led an NYU course titled, Critical Heritage, Memory, and Temporality. Co-conceived from the ongoing work of Emily Johnson and Jackson Polys, the graduate students completed an assignment analyzing and comparing three Land Acknowledgments of their choosing. Compiled together each case study of Land Acknowledgements provided the analysis and data points that resulted in a robust comparative database and consolidated metric for critical assessment. The guiding questions of this assignment and the throughline of this project examine how Land Acknowledgments can lead to knowledge back, land back, Ancestors back, and Belongings back :#everythingback.

Dance NYC Symposium organized by Emily Johnson, including a conversation with Collete Denali Montoya, Jane Anderson and Nicole Wallace.

"Changing the DNA of the Settler Colonial State: Resisting the Power of Property within the Archives"

The session was intended to exchange and coordinate strategies from practitioners in the fields of education, arts, archives, and data sovereignty. The conversation focused on the ways archives can embody change and be indigenized to reframe stories about what dance is, where it comes from, and what canon is/can be. The symposium examined/interrogated how intellectual property law exists inequitably in relationship with knowledge, property and power.

New Red Order: Feel at Home Here, an exhibition at Artists Space, features NRO’s Give it Back project, collecting and promoting instances of giving land back.

"In response to the activism, scrutiny, and expressed concerns of diverse community voices, contemporary art institutions are increasingly examining their infrastructures and practices in order to support broader decolonial efforts and to shift their behavior and values. Indigenous artists and community members are steadily challenging institutions within their territories and beyond to better represent Indigenous artistic practices and to engage with communities in more sustained and meaningful ways.

This session accounts for the progress made thus far, and the ways in which this may be built on. How can different art institutions and arts professionals demonstrate accountability and responsibility in context-specific ways, and to local Indigenous nations in the work they do? What responsibility do they have to Indigenous artists and to communities more broadly conceived? In other words, how might arts institutions move beyond performative gestures such as land acknowledgments toward materially supporting the needs and desires of Indigenous communities and artists? How do decolonization efforts in contemporary art connect to broader interconnected struggles for justice and equity?"

Find the recording of the session here.

The Decolonial Action Coalition came together over threads of intersecting work to write TRANSFORMATION: FUNDING THROUGH A JUSTICE LENS, a Decolonial Action Perspective in Creating New Future’s Phase Two: Notes for Equitable Funding from Artsworkers document.

A Letter I Hope In The Future Doesn’t Need To Be Written, by Emily Johnson and a compilation of resulting resources: Decolonizing Montclair State University, documenting a national conversation about ethics, equity, white supremacy and decolonization in the field of the performing arts.