News in Brief: Graffiti related to Indigenous land rights appears on campus

News in Brief: Graffiti related to Indigenous land rights appears on campus

Graffiti with phrases referencing Indigenous land rights appeared around campus. The sentence “‘American Rent Is Due’” was spray painted in red on the canvas of a large tent on Battell Beach on May 19. It was later removed by facility members. The next week on May 27, the phrase “Land Back” was spray painted in red on the sidewalk at the base of Mead Chapel. "Land Back" is a political movement calling for everything stolen (land, language, culture, medicine, etc.) to be returned to the "original Peoples". The author summarizes what the College is doing in terms of land acknowledgment: reading of formal land acknowledgment at major ceremonies, Abenaki language program at the language schools, and "allowing access to college lands to collect food and medicine"

Charlie Keohane

The Campus

06/11/2021