Land and Labor acknowledgEment

We respectfully acknowledge the ancestral land upon which the Walter E. Washington Convention Center sits in Washington, DC. This is the occupied territory of the Nacotchtank (Anacostan) and Piscataway peoples and Ancient Nations for which no names are known who’ve gone before on this land, who were forcibly displaced in the 1600s.

We recognize the people who resided here and that the spirit of their people permeates this soil. These nations ceded significant portions of their land, forming present-day Washington, DC, in an inequitable and unfair treaty with the U.S. government. We pay respects to their elders, past and present.

We also acknowledge the unpaid labor and forced servitude of enslaved Africans and their descendants, whose unremitted labor and exploitation were pivotal to the rapid economic growth of our nation and face ongoing oppression, racism, and violence.

We recognize the broken promises and harm done to the First Peoples of these lands, the horrors of American slavery, and the painful legacies of inequity that continue to persist.