The statement below was developed by the Native American and Indigenous Alliance at George Mason University. You can watch the full acknowledgement and learn more by watching this video on YouTube.

Land acknowledgment engages all present in an ongoing indigenous protocol to enact meaningful, reciprocal relationships with ancestors and contemporary tribal nations. As a state university, we have a responsibility to include and support indigenous communities and sovereign tribes in our work.

At the place George Mason University occupies, we give greetings and thanksgivings to these Potomac River life sources, to the Doeg ancestors, who Virginia annihilated in violent campaigns while ripping their lands apart with the brutal system of African American enslavement, to the recognized Virginia tribes who have lovingly stewarded these lands for millennia including the Rappahannock, Pamunkey, Upper Mattaponi, Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Nansemond, Monacan, Mattaponi, Patawomeck, and Nottaway, past, present, and future, and to the Piscataway tribes, who have lived on both sides of the river from time immemorial.

We encourage SIGDOC participants to remember the colonial legacies of academic institutions as we engage with one another over the next few days, and to consider how our field might work toward a more just and equitable world through future research projects, community partnerships, and conference themes.

As a conference organizing committee,  we encourage attendees to see the land acknowledgement not as a static assertion, but as part of an ongoing commitment to work collaboratively toward justice through our scholarship and teaching. That is, land acknowledgements do not absolve us from responsibility to pursue material commitments to decolonization, like returning land to Indigenous communities or decolonizing our curricula, so we see this  statement as a starting point for collective action.

We also encourage SIGDOC participants to learn more about current Indigenous research, organizing, and community building in the area, including:

While you are in DC/Maryland/Virginia, you may also consider learning about Native and Indigenous history through institutes and museums in the area, including the National Museum of the American Indian. The National Parks Service has also compiled a list of sites and experiences centered on Indigenous history in the area, as has the Washington Post.