LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We are gathered across the country on the unceded land of the many Indigenous Peoples who have stewarded these territories over generations. Dance with Joy Studios, in Multnomah County, rests on traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, bands of Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla and many other Tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River. The name of our county, Multnomah, is named after a band of Chinooks that lived in this area.. I ask you to join me in acknowledging these Indigenous Nations, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. Dance with Joy Studios further acknowledges that our studio teaches dance styles and fitness movement forms whose music and movement were appropriated from other cultures, ethnicities, races, many of whom, due to their racial or ethnic identity, have been historically excluded from opportunity. We want to lift up those who created these dances, music, styles of movement, who built and and maintained the infrastructure that allows us to conduct our work and come together today in community, joy and celebration, for our health, fitness, emotional and physical well being. Our business has been founded in privilege, by exclusions and erasures of many peoples, and this acknowledgement is hopefully a beginning step in our process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism.

COMMUNITY UNDERSTANDINGS

• Make space, take space

• Practice self-care and community care

• Stay present and accountable

• Embrace our learning space

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