On Sept. 11, Central Oregon Community College released their new land acknowledgement video. This short film gives students a better idea of what the land acknowledgement talks about through visuals and audio.
Before this new addition, staff and faculty would typically, though not always, read a quick paragraph that Michelle Cary, former Native American program coordinator wrote. This had information regarding the land that COCC is built on and recognition to those who inhabited the land before. But, over time, the land acknowledgment was due for an update, now a video.
This idea to make a video where students and faculty can engage and visualize this land acknowledgment started with COCC’s current Native American Student Program Coordinator, Jeremiah Rector.
“Our language is derived from the land, so the idea was to have this video highly feature the land,” said Rector.
Rector, who had been visualizing this idea for over a year now, teamed up with COCC’s Native American College Prep Coordinator, Jackie Currie, and new Digital Content Creator, Rosie Day, to make this video become reality.
All land acknowledgements aren’t made to stay the same forever, and Currie made sure to reiterate that, “It’s important to note that land acknowledgements can grow and shift, and not only can, but are intended to,” she said “knowledge spreads and more is learned, and then things can be updated”
The language of the Klamath and Warm Springs tribes can get mixed up and may not always be pronounced correctly when being read. These acknowledgements are extremely important, so with the lack of accuracy comes the potential disrespect to those who are native.
“Language is a very big and important thing, one that identifies us as people but also identifies us from different tribes,” Rector said, “we wanted to make sure it was worded and pronounced correctly”.
This was part of the reason why the update was important, making sure that each tribe was pronounced correctly and from a native. The other part was giving the viewers an idea of what the land is they talk about. That it’s not just the classroom they sit in, but a lot more.
“Historically and still presently, native people tend to be left out of that system, so it’s important for colleges and higher education institutions to recognize the literal land they are on” said Currie.
For the visual aspect, Day wanted to emphasize the native land in the video.“The previous land acknowledgment really didn’t bring home what the land acknowledgement was for,” she said, “we wanted to show the vastness of the landscape and the different varieties of landscape, all of which was and is owned by the native people.”
They got the ball rolling on this project when Day was hired, in March 2024. They filmed during summer using drone footage to capture the vast lands they all envisioned. With music from local Warm Springs tribe member and Native American Music Award winner, James Edmund Greeley, from his pre-recorded album, “Before America”.
From the beginning they intended for the video to be released on COCC’s kickoff day, surrounding the celebration of the schools upcoming 75th anniversary May 2, 2025, and the 25th anniversary of the annual Salmon Bake which happened on May 18, 2024.
