As part of the Poetry Out Loud curriculum, AmadorArts sustains our commitment to racial equity. This year, we contracted with Glen Villa, Junior, of the Miwok Heritage Center and the Ione Band of Miwok. Mr. Villa created this video for the AmadorArts Poetry Out Loud Tribal Lands Acknowledgement. This activity is made possible in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.

[Under construction]

From Memorial Day through Independence Day, Amador County Arts Council and the Miwok Heritage Center invite you to celebrate Miwok contributions and culture in present-day Amador County.

We invite you to learn about the role Miwok people played in the war efforts in history.  This exhibit includes pictures and information about the Miwok people and patriotic acts in which they participated.  Little is known of these acts or that, in many instances, they were not citizens of the countries that they represented in these skirmishes.  Miwok people were proud of their participation and were happy to serve.

Amador County Arts Council Tribal Lands Acknowledgment

Background:
Tribal Land Acknowledgement is a way that people insert an awareness of Indigenous presence and land rights in everyday life. This is often done at the beginning of performances, lectures, meetings, or any public event. It can be a subtle way to recognize the history of colonialism and a need for change in settler colonial societies.

However, these acknowledgements can easily be a token gesture rather than a meaningful practice. All settlers, including recent arrivants, have a responsibility to consider what it means to acknowledge the history and legacy of colonialism.

In our decisions around funding, programming, and services, the Amador County Arts Council Board of Directors, Staff, and Volunteers consider the following questions:

• • What are some of the privileges settlers enjoy today because of colonialism?

• • How can individuals develop relationships with peoples whose territory they are living on in the contemporary Amador County geopolitical landscape?

• • What are you, or your organization, doing beyond acknowledging the territory where you live, work, or hold your events?

• • What might you be doing that perpetuates settler colonial futurity rather than considering alternative ways forward for Amador?

• • Do you have an understanding of the on-going violence and the trauma that is part of the structure of colonialism?

The following Tribal Land Acknowledgment will be read/recited by the appropriate designated person at the beginning of all meetings, events, and gatherings:

The Amador County Arts Council invites you to join us as we carry forward a practice of sharing respect and deference for, offering gratitude to, and recognition of the original inhabitants of the lands we now call Amador County, California.

We acknowledge and offer gratitude to these indigenous ancestors, and present-day relations of the Nisenan, Washoe, and the Plains Miwok & Northern Sierra Miwok of the Amador County and greater Mother Lode region.

We acknowledge their long history and respect of these lands, their respect for the plants, animals and native landscapes in these lands, their contributions in the establishment and sustenance of our towns and community, and we uplift their legacies as they continue to build and sustain their culture and practices today and for future generations.

Some language adapted from California Arts Council, a state agency at arts.ca.gov and from native-land.ca.

Special Thanks for the input and assistance from Glen Villa, Executive Director of Miwok Heritage Center in Ione, California and from Fiona Pulskamp, artist and cultural leader from Sacramento, California with family roots in Amador.