VRA 2024: Land Acknowledgement

Minneapolis, Minnesota is part of the homeland of the Dakota and Anishinaabe (Ojibwe). Today, Dakota, Ojibwe, and many other Indigenous Americans make their home in the Twin Cities. As the Visual Resources Association visits Minneapolis for our 2024 Annual Conference, we acknowledge and pay respect to the Indigenous people of Minneapolis, past and present.

Cultural heritage work has both a colonial history and present. As such, it is incumbent upon us to lessen the ongoing, harmful impact of settler colonialism. This, however, is not a statement of passivity. As a profession, there are things each of us can do.

What members of VRA can do:

1. Support and uphold ethical stewardship:

1. engage in critical cataloging 

2. pursue equitable partnerships

3. appropriately enhance the visibility of underrepresented artists

4. facilitate the repatriation of stolen collections

5. work to mitigate the climate impact of visual resources work

2. Support the hiring, retention, and promotion of your BIPOC colleagues

3. Join the Equitable Action Committee

Donation Links:

In support of the Minneapolis Native community, the Visual Resources Association has donated $400 to Little Earth toward their campaign for a new passenger van.

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A Message From Little Earth:

Little Earth is a 9.4-acre HUD subsidized housing complex in the industrial urban core of Minneapolis. Founded in 1973 through grassroots activism, it is the only American Indian preference Section 8 rental assistance community in the United States. Home to 1200 residents representing 38 tribal affiliations, Little Earth is a model for self determination for all Native peoples with its work to eliminate systemic barriers in education, health, and career development. Our wraparound support services integrate a range of programs including Adult and Family Empowerment, Youth Empowerment, the Native Youth Culture Program, the Noojimowin Counseling Program, Native Youth Arts Collective, the Native Youth Workforce Development Program, and the Urban Farm.

Thank you for supporting Little Earth in our vision of empowering our residents by creating a culturally strong, supportive, healthy, and unified community. Our work disrupts the cycle of intergenerational trauma and colonization and moves our community towards Native sovereignty. 

New Passenger Van (our current campaign)

All three of Little Earth’s faithful old passenger vans were severely damaged by vandalism, and two are a total loss. These vans are used daily for transporting kids to school, Elders to medical appointments and the pharmacy, families for food shelf runs, and community pets to the veterinarian. Your generous support will help us purchase a new or gently used replacement. 

Donate to Little Earth

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We encourage attendees to join us in materially supporting the Native community in Minneapolis by donating to Little Earth or another local organization:

• All My Relations Arts 

• Minneapolis American Indian Center 

• Native Youth Arts Collective 

• We Are Still Here Minnesota

Resources for Self-Education:

About Minneapolis

• Connect land acknowledgement to action, Native leaders urge

• Where We Stand: The University of Minnesota and Dakhóta Treaty Lands 

• Why Treaties Matter Exhibition 

• Writing Land Acknowledgements, UMN LibGuides 

About Visual Resources Work

• Best Practices in Authority Work Relating to Indigenous Nations in the U.S.

• Collaborators’ Bill of Rights

• Creating subject headings for Indigenous topics : a culturally respectful guide

• Embracing a Complicated Relationship: Indigenous Museum Practices

• Indigenous Knowledge Organization, X̱wi7x̱wa Library

• Local Contexts Labels & Notices

• Recruitment, Retention, and Experiences of Art Library Professionals

• Toward a Decolonial Archival Praxis: Digitizing the Lloyd Best Archive in Trinidad and Tobago 

About Land Acknowledgements

• Beyond the Land Acknowledgement

• A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgment

• Guide to Indigenous Land and Territorial Acknowledgement for Cultural Institutions 

• 'I regret it': Hayden King on writing Ryerson University's territorial acknowledgement

• Native Land