An acknowledgement

above: Dr. Thomas López and a Lower School student at Friday's Harvest Assembly. More photos are here.

For fifteen years, Gordon students have been leading an ongoing conversation about history, holidays, and the ways that Gordon recognizes the history of North American colonization and the school's relationship to the Indigenous people who first settled New England.

After seventh grade led in a lesson on the history of Columbus Day in October, eighth grade continued exploring the topic..

At Friday’s Harvest Assembly, Head of School Noni Thomas López caught the school community up on the most recent work happening in this area.

As Dr. Thomas López explained at the assembly,

A couple of weeks ago, your Student Leadership Co-Presidents asked to meet with me. During this meeting they shared what they have been learning about Indigenous people and the history of their land in their humanities class. 

They had read a few land acknowledgements from different organizations and began thinking about what makes a good one, and they read Gordon’s past land acknowledgement and felt that it should be updated. 

They proposed that Gordon work with the indigenous communities in our area to create a more heartfelt and informative land statement that acknowledges their community and our history more fully. 

The eighth grade created a petition asking the school to support this work by adopting four commitments that will create more visibility of Indigenous people and opportunities for collaboration. These are…

Officially acknowledge the month of November as “Indigenous People’s Month” and add it to the Gordon calendar.

Work with local Indigenous communities to create a more genuine and informative land acknowledgement.

Integrate the use of Gordon’s land acknowledgement at school wide and community events.

Allocate more time and resources to learn about Indigenous people, their history, or their culture and holidays, especially through collaborations with our local Indigenous communities.

I want to thank your Student Leadership Co-Presidents and all of those in our community for signing the petition, and I look forward to sharing the proposal with our Board of Trustees, and working with the two of them and whomever else would like to engage in the work this year to ensure, in your presidents’ words, that we “truly live up to the Gordon mission of joyfully learning, building empathy, encouraging advocacy, and preparing students to enter a complex and diverse world.”