Acknowledgement

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With this campaign, I’m raising funds to create ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, an unfolding film series centering the ancestral peoples of this land, water, and sky, specifically within this city of Zhegagoynak, Illiniwek, aka “Chicago.” I believe now is an urgent time to be doing this work. We're at a threshold where institutions are beginning to acknowledge the ancestral peoples and attempt to understand the capacity of our existence, yet the tools that these institutions currently have are limited in scope and are often in desperate need of guidance for accuracy and long-term strategies for growth in understanding. This series is an effort to create works that may shape the nature of these actions going forward, created in an open-source format where the action of acknowledgement is perpetual and prioritizes the perspective of the ancestral peoples of their respective lands. Each iteration seeks to share a different perspective, language, and backstory of existence in these lands, all the while centering the ancestral right of the original peoples to call this place home, since time immemorial into perpetual time. The series will begin with a film celebrating and collaborating with the Pokagon band of Potawatomi and their origins beyond the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Each unfolding film will celebrate the diversity of tribal peoples that have called this place home. My hope is that the series will start here in Chicago but hopefully permeate throughout the nation.

About This Project

I acknowledge that I'm not ancestrally from this land. I am Indigenous to the southeast woodlands of this continent, connected by the same waters and rivers that nourish us and the land. I also originate from the island of Guam. My experiences, skillset as an artist and storyteller, as well as my own need to be acknowledged in my ancestral lands is something that I'm bringing to the table, here in Chicago. Forced removal, genocide, and coercion to cede our respective ancestral lands are the traumas that we seek to continually overcome as we work to reclaim connection to our origins as Native people. I offer my abilities as an artist, the platform that I’ve created through my work, and this opportunity for crowdsourcing to amplify and make more visible the connection that the ancestral peoples have to this place.

Right now, in our homelands and on this earth, there are a lot of inaccuracies and “DIY acknowledgments” that are offensive or showcase enough distortions that it's off-putting and not welcoming to the ancestral peoples and Indigenous people as a whole. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT is an action made by Indigenous creators to help rectify this.

When you donate to this campaign, I want you to feel empowered and inspired, knowing that you are amplifying the legacy of the Native peoples that originated here in Chicago, and establishing a platform that will grow and flourish. The more support we can leverage through this campaign, the more perspectives we can showcase. Through your generosity, I look forward to creating this unfolding collaborative film series and sharing the works with you in the months and years to come.

* Opportunities for institutional contributions:
$2,500: screening rights to share during events for 2022
$5,000: perpetual screening rights, as well as recognition in film credits with logo as a contributor to the film series

Thank yous

Contribute any amount or choose from the levels below.

• $25
  Personalized thank you on social media ($25.00 is tax deductible.)
• $75
  Above, plus a “LAND BACK” mug ($57.00 is tax deductible.)
• $150
  All the above, plus a “DECOLONIZE THE WORLD” shirt ($92.00 is tax deductible.)
• $250
  All the above, plus your name recognized in the credits of the film(s) ($192.00 is tax deductible.)
• $500
  All the above, plus an invitation to a Virtual Studio Visit with X to hear about the Behind-the-Scenes making of the work as well as a special Directors-Cut screening ($442.00 is tax deductible.)
• $1000
  All the above, plus a COVID-safe, private group tour of X’s new earthwork installation, “THE COILED SERPENT,” and preview of his new AR work “AUGMENT EARTH” ($942.00 is tax deductible.)
• $2500
  (Institutional contributors) Screening rights to share during events for 2022 ($2500.00 is tax deductible.)
• $5000
  (Institutional contributors) Screening rights for 5 years, as well as recognition in film credits with logo as a contributor to the series ($5000.00 is tax deductible.)
• $7500
  (Institutional contributors) Perpetual screening rights, as well as recognition in film credits with logo as a contributor to the series ($7500.00 is tax deductible.)

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S̶A̶N̶T̶I̶A̶G̶O̶ X

Chandler Family Awardee

Santiago X, M.Arch, MFA is an Indigenous futurist and multidisciplinary artist specializing in land, architectural, and new media installation. He is an enrolled citizen of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana (Koasati) and Indigenous Chamoru from the Island of Guam U.S.A …

View S̶A̶N̶T̶I̶A̶G̶O̶ X's profile

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