Invocation and Land Acknowledgement

Sunday, May 19, 2024
by Samuel H. Speers, Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life and Contemplative Practices

Dear people,
this is a day for new beginnings.
We start with an invocation, which means a calling-in.

We call ourselves in,
into this gathering of friends, teachers, loved ones, supporters—
all of us together today:

We are here this morning to bear witness to the commencement—
the new beginning—of 500 shining human beings.

Every one of you 
is an occasion of joy for the families and chosen families
who have come today
to surround you with love and to celebrate you.

I invite you to take a moment right now, and simply take this in. . .

As your time in this place comes to a close,
and a new path opens ahead of you,
we are here to bless you on your way. . .

Like all blessings, this one begins by naming where we are:

We acknowledge that Vassar stands upon the homelands of the Munsee Lenape, Indigenous peoples who have an enduring connection to this place despite being forcibly displaced by European colonization. Munsee Lenape peoples continue today as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin, the Delaware Tribe and the Delaware Nation in Oklahoma, and the Munsee-Delaware Nation in Ontario. This acknowledgment, however, is insufficient without our reckoning with the reality that every member of the Vassar community since 1861 has benefited from these Native peoples’ displacement; and it is hollow without our efforts to counter the effects of structures that have long enabled—and that still perpetuate—injustice against Indigenous Americans. To that end: We commit to build and sustain relationships with Native communities; to expand opportunities at Vassar for Native students as well as Native faculty and other employees; and to collaborate with Native nations to know better the Indigenous peoples, past and present, who care for this land.