Metro Blooms Land and Labor Acknowledgement:
We are on the stolen homelands and treaty territory of the Dakota Oyate [oy-yah-tay]. Minnesota, the US Government, and European white colonizers carried out genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced removal of the Dakota to acquire land and wealth. The Ioway [eye-oh-way], Hocąk [ho-chunk], Anishinaabe [Ah-Nee-shin-AH-bay] and other Indigenous Nations have also called this region home. The waters and plants here have traditional, spiritual, and cultural significance to the Indigenous Peoples of this land who are still here stewarding them.
We acknowledge the violent exploitation, trafficking and enslaved labor of Africans and their descendants by white colonizers on these same stolen lands. Deeply rooted white supremacy continues to propagate injustices in health, wealth, and opportunity. Here and across the country, Black communities are segregated and displaced, disrupting traditions and relationships with land. We benefit greatly from the undervalued and co-opted contributions of Black communities who have made possible much of our country’s economic and cultural growth.
Take a moment to reflect internally, how does white supremacy show up in your life? How might you be participating and how can we come together to mobilize change? (pause)
We have much to learn from Minnesota’s Indigenous and Black communities about how we relate to each other and the earth.
Metro Blooms’ Land and Labor Acknowledgment is a living document that evolves with our organization. It informs our commitments to Native communities and our developing commitments to Black communities. We welcome ongoing dialogue and constructive feedback. Thanks to Wakan Tipi Awayankapi and ocho smith for consulting support.
Metro Blooms Commitments to Native and Black Communities
Metro Blooms’ Native and Black Community Commitments reflect not only the work needed to appropriately acknowledge the past and repair ongoing harm, but also to improve our organization’s ability to be a welcoming and successful place of employment for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. These commitments weave our external commitments to the communities we work with and our internal commitments to staff.
Metro Blooms:
- Integrates land and labor acknowledgements into signage, meetings, trainings, workshops, and events as appropriate.
- Develops and deepens relationships with Indigenous and Black organizations and individuals as we learn, following the leadership of values-aligned Indigenous and Black organizations.
- Uplifts and supports the work of Native and Black-led organizations doing environmental justice work, including Land Back activism and reparations work
- Understands and shares that our work takes place on stolen land of the homelands of Dakota Nations, including communities who have stewarded this place for millennia.
- Understands that Black communities experience ongoing segregation and displacement, disrupting traditions and relationships with land. We recognize our responsibility to repair that harm and commit to learning from and citing the work of Black community members, scholars, and activists who disrupt colonial relationships to land.
- Holds ongoing conversations about our responsibilities and relationship with Native and Black communities.
- Uplifts and supports staff and board in attending educational opportunities related to Native and Black History, contemporary experiences, and relation to land
- Works toward Native and Black representation, retention and leadership opportunities on our board, our staff, and our Blue Thumb Steering Committee, guided by our Hiring Procedure and Values-Aligned Considerations.
- Include Dakota names of plants in our signage and resources
- Metro Blooms uses our purchasing power to invest in our local communities.
- Metro Blooms commits to spending 20% of our revenue annually to support BIPOC/LGBTQIA2S+ businesses and paying program attendees experiencing environmental injustice for their time and labor through community stipends. Of this 20%, we are committed to 5% supporting Black and 5% Indigenous businesses and individuals.
- Metro Blooms Design+Build prioritizes purchasing from BIPOC/ /LGBTQIA2S+ owned vendors, utilizing a priority matrix for vendor spending decisions and offers scholarship funding for site consultations, design and installations.
- When working with Black and Indigenous partners and community, we listen to, trust, and acknowledge past and present harms they have and continue to experience, taking caring action to move towards systems change.
