This land acknowledgement is a living statement, continually evolving as we deepen our understanding of and commitment to an authentic reckoning with the enduring injustices inflicted upon the Native peoples of this land. We recognize that words alone cannot encompass the full harm of colonization, persecution, and genocide. With this awareness, we dedicate ourselves to ensuring that our acknowledgement reflects our values through meaningful action, ongoing learning, and embodied creativity.
Luna Dance & Creativity humbly recognizes its presence on the territory of xučyun (Huichin), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people, the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. This land was and continues to be of great importance to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and other familial descendants of the Verona Band, who are alive and flourishing members of the Berkeley and Bay Area communities today.
As a resident organization of this land, we acknowledge that every member of the Luna community has benefited, and continues to benefit, from the use and occupation of this land. Consistent with Luna’s Mission and Theory of Change, which are centered on equity, we are committed to social justice and honor the history, culture, arts, and self-determination of the Ohlone.
Luna promotes culturally responsive pedagogy and strives to embody antiracist, diverse, and inclusive relationships with our community, in particular those members of indigenous tribes who have been impacted by systemic and historic marginalization, oppression, and erasure. We bear a responsibility to build and maintain healing relationships with Native peoples. We welcome and celebrate their dance and creativity. We are all caretakers for this place and its natural environment.
We are grateful to our friends at the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and the Confederated Villages of Lisjan for their support and guidance as we continue to educate ourselves and to uplift and support indigenous communities.
Ohlone Dancers mural by John Wehrle
