Land Acknowledgement

What Is a Land Acknowledgement? 

A land acknowledgement is a formal statement that recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples who have been the traditional stewards of the land on which we gather. It is one step in a larger commitment to truth, justice, and right relationship, calling us to align our institutional practices with those values. 

Our Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that Notre Dame de Namur University sits on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush peoples, the original peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula. We recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland, and we affirm their sovereign rights as First Peoples. Our values, rooted in the Hallmarks of a Notre Dame Learning Community, guide this acknowledgment and our commitments that follow. 

As a learning community committed to educating for and acting on behalf of justice, we understand that academic institutions, indeed the nation-state itself, were founded upon and continue to enact exclusions and erasures of Indigenous Peoples. This acknowledgment demonstrates a commitment to beginning the process of working to dismantle the ongoing injustices of colonialism. 

Therefore, we affirm that honoring the dignity and sacredness of the Ramaytush peoples requires us to move beyond recognition to concrete action. We commit to actively working to reform the unjust structures that perpetuate the ongoing harms of colonialism through our curriculum and institutional practices, supporting the enduring presence and traditional stewardship of the Ramaytush community, past, present, and future. 

Short Version for Gatherings and Events 

Notre Dame de Namur University acknowledges the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush peoples, the original peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula. We affirm their sovereign rights as First Peoples. Guided by the Hallmarks of a Notre Dame Learning Community, we commit to working through our curriculum and institutional practices to address the ongoing injustices of colonialism and to support the enduring presence and traditional stewardship of the Ramaytushcommunity. 

Using the Land Acknowledgement 

Members of the NDNU community are invited to incorporate these statements into gatherings, events, courses, and institutional life in ways that are meaningful and appropriate to their context. 

This land acknowledgement was drafted by the Director of Mission, Diversity, and Inclusion and the Diversity Council, in consultation with and with the approval of the Ramaytush Tribe.