Land Acknowledgement

Aerial view of campus site, April 1964
Aerial view of central campus, April 1964: UCI Libraries Special Collections & Archives http://hdl.handle.net/10575/5304 email: spcoll@uci.edu

A Land Acknowledgement is a formal statement that recognizes and respects Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of this land and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories.

The UCI Libraries and the UC Irvine campus are located on the homelands of the Acjachemen and Tongva peoples who, in the face of on-going settler colonialism, continue to claim their place and act as stewards of their ancestral lands as they have for the past 8,000 years. The region extends from the Santa Ana River to Aliso Creek and beyond.

Our recognition is an expression of gratitude and appreciation and is intended to honor the indigenous people who have been living and working on this land from time immemorial. The website Native Land helps identify the land of indigenous people from around the world, wherever you might be located. Click here for more information.

The UCI Libraries acknowledge our presence on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Acjachemen and Tongva peoples. And we respectfully honor and recognize the original and current caretakers of this land, water, and air: the Acjachemen and Tongva peoples and all of their ancestors and descendants, past, present, and future. Today this meeting place is home to many Indigenous peoples from all over the world, including UCI faculty, students, and staff, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to live and work on these homelands.

Our acknowledgement is informed and inspired by similar efforts throughout higher education and other cultural institutions, as well as the Sue and Bill Gross School of Nursing, UCI Sustainability land acknowledgements and UC Riverside Native American Student Programs land acknowledgement.