Acknowledgements
Land Acknowledgement
We would like to acknowledge that Mt. San Antonio College serves students and the community on the unceded on the ancestral, sacred, and stolen lands of the KIT - CH Nation, the AH – HESH – EEE – MAN Nation and the Gabrielino/Tongva Peoples. We acknowledge that Mt. San Antonio College serves students and the community on the unceded ancestral homeland of indigenous peoples. This land remains inseparable from its aboriginal stewards. As guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland, and we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders and relatives of indigenous peoples. We remain grateful for the rich culture, languages, contributions, and heritage of the First Nation peoples who lived here and loved here, who raised their families here, who cared for land and life here, who are buried in many marked and unmarked places here, and who remain here despite acts of genocide, assimilation, and forced removal. With the recognition of occupation and stolen land that Mt. SAC resides on, we acknowledge our role and responsibility to create spaces of healing, to pay our respect to the ancestors of these lands past, present, and emerging, and to recognize our duty to stand up for racial and social justice every day.
Labor Acknowledgement
We must acknowledge the unaddressed legacy of stolen labor at the foundation of this country. Much of what we know of this nation today, including its culture, economic growth, and development throughout history, has been made possible by the labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants who suffered the atrocities of human trafficking, enslavement, Jim Crow laws, and a wide variety of racist economic policies. We pay respects to Black life, knowledge, and skills stolen due to the violence and white supremacy of a nation that refused to recognize their humanity.
Additionally, we acknowledge our collective debt to all those whose labor has been forced and exploited, including those who migrated to this country seeking a better future. We acknowledge that the theft of labor is the theft of inter-generational economic progress, and we must commit ourselves to redressing the legacies of this violence. Today, we honor these communities. We are indebted to their labor and sacrifice.
Student Acknowledgement
Thank you to Mecha de Mt. SAC, Mechistas, Alejandro Juarez and Fabian Pavon, and other student activists who in 2016, and after, took the bold steps to push our community for the development of an Ethnic Studies department and other student-centered resources at Mt. San Antonio College. The fruit of your labor is here, and with the passage of California Bill AB1460, we are excited to develop this department in a way that honors our students' resistance, histories, heritage, voices, experiences, and cultural identities.
