1.
LAND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
AND PROTOCOLS
REBECCA DOBKINS, PH.D.
HALLIE FORD MUSEUM OF ART, WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY, SALEM, OR

2.
KEY QUESTIONS
Why have a land acknowledgement? Who is
the audience?
How can a protocol for action build upon a land
acknowledgement?
What are some ingredients of successful long-
term tribal-museum collaborations?

3.
Why have a land
acknowledgement?

4.
Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread, 2004
Pataka Museum, Aotearoa (New Zealand)

5.
Indigenous Land and Territorial
Acknowledgements for Institutions

6.
http://landacknowledgements.org/

7.
How can a protocol for
action build upon—or
replace—a land
acknowledgement?

8.
ECOTRUST Call to Action
ECOTRUST (Portland, Oregon) Lisa J. Watt
(Seneca), Director of Indigenous Leadership
Program
https://ecotrust.org/call-to-action-for-
indigenous-communities/
Call to Action for Indigenous Communities
While land acknowledgements are intended to be
respectful, they oversimplify complex tribal
histories and fail to recognize the ongoing
impacts of colonization that tribal communities
continue to live with to this day.
In place of a land acknowledgement, Ecotrust
staff—and especially the Native staff—are asking
you to support Indigenous communities by taking
action. [Lists 8 specific actions]

9.
Protocols for Action
What would it mean to partner a land acknowledgement
with action in your institution?
Example of University of Alberta:
https://www.ualberta.ca/centre-for-teaching-and-
learning/teaching-support/indigenization/land-
acknowledgements.html

10.
Coupling words with institutional power
Going beyond “inclusion” or
“acknowledgement” to transformational change
Raises key questions about how decisions are
made and resources are controlled or shared

11.
What are ingredients of successful
long-term tribal-museum
collaborations?

12.
Building
Relationships with
contemporary
weavers
Minerva Soucie (Paiute)
Bud Lane (Siletz)
Pat Courtney Gold
(Warm Springs)

13.
Collaboration with Northwest Native
American Basketweavers Association

14.
George and Colleen Hoyt Endowed Fund
for Native American Weaving Arts
Alfred “Bud” Lane III (Siletz) 2001 Basket cap
Hazel, bear grass, maidenhair fern

15.
The Art of Ceremony:
Regalia of Native Oregon
2007-2009
NEA American Masterpieces
Project
Venues:
HFMA, OR Historical Society
Tamástslikt Cultural Institute
The Museum at Warm Springs

16.
Tamástslikt Cultural Institute staff Randall Melton works with HFMA
David Andersen on exhibition installation, 2008

17.
Exhibition led to
book
Foreword by Bud Lane
Afterword by Roberta
Conner
Forthcoming, University of
Washington Press, October
2022

18.
Contemporary
Native Artists
Exhibition &
Publication
Programs
Rick Bartow, Wiyot
MY EYE exhibition &
book
2002

19.
Lillian Pitt, Warm
Springs
Spirits Keep
Whistling Me Home
Exhibition 2004

20.
Marie Watt,
Seneca
Lodge exhibition and
book, 2012

21.
CROW’S SHADOW INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS,
Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon

22.
Welcome Figure
to be
dedicated—
today!
Bobby Mercier (Grand
Ronde) designed and carved
a Welcome Figure for the
HFMA that will serve as a
permanent presence,
welcoming and reminding
visitors and community
members that we are on
Kalapuyan Land.

23.
Lessons
Relationship-building is a long-term process for both individuals and
institutions
Secure long-term institutional commitments (protocols,
endowments, regular programming, positions)
Institutionalize broad responsibility for relationship-building

24.
Thank you!
Thank you to colleagues Roberta “Bobbie” Conner and Jennifer
Karson Engum, Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, David Lewis, Oregon
State University, and Elizabeth Woody, The Museum at Warm Springs
Thank you to the Western Museums Association
Rebecca Dobkins, Curator and Professor, Hallie Ford Museum of Art,
Willamette University
rdobkins@willamette.edu