Land Acknowledgement

Good evening, everyone. My name is Teslim Ikharo, and I am the Executive Director of Supportive Housing Community Land Alliance, an Alameda County-based community land trust that uses an acquisition and rehabilitation strategy to create quality supportive housing for residents living with serious mental illness.

Before I begin, I want to thank EBHO for convening us during this Affordable Housing Month Kickoff event, and acknowledge the elected officials, county leadership, housing advocates, organizers, developers, service providers, and all of the affordable housing leaders gathered here tonight. Your work shapes the future of our communities, and I appreciate the opportunity to stand before you this evening.

My role today is to offer a land acknowledgement for tonight's gathering. As I reflected on this responsibility and honor, I thought about the history of the land we now stand on, and how Native communities have continued to reclaim land, preserve culture, and assert a fuller and more accurate account of history, one that acknowledges the forced taking of Indigenous land and the resilience of Indigenous peoples.

I also realized that I have a personal connection to Native communities through my own experience growing up here in Oakland. In the second grade, I moved from Piedmont Avenue Elementary School to Carl B. Munck Elementary School in the Oakland Hills.

There, I learned that the daycare and preschool connected to my elementary school had been established by Native Americans involved in the occupation of Alcatraz Island beginning in November 1969. During the occupation, which lasted for over a year and a half, residents created a preschool to educate and support children living on the island. When the occupation ended, members of that community sought to establish a preschool on the mainland that would teach Native history, culture, and education to both Native and non-Native children.

At that time, there was significant opposition from some members of the Oakland Hills community who fought intensely against the preschool being established there. Much of that resistance came from wealthier white families in the area who failed to confront or acknowledge the deeper history of the land and the importance of Native self-determination and cultural preservation.

Despite that resistance, the preschool was established as Hintil Kuu Ca. It became a meaningful part of the Carl Munck Elementary community. The preschool and elementary school shared a playground, shared space, and shared experiences. Celebrating Native presence, not just as history, but as a living and evolving community, became part of what made my Oakland upbringing such an enriching experience. Its legacy has recently been documented in the film The School (opens in a new tab).

So tonight, in honor of the enduring history, resilience, and continued presence of Native peoples, let us commit ourselves to thinking bigger and casting a wider net, being more inclusive, and bringing the best parts of ourselves into the work of building communities. Let us continue creating spaces that acknowledge the history of the land we occupy, honor the relationships between people and all living beings, and hold those relationships as sacred.

Thank you.