Creating a living Land Acknowledgement through public art and ecology
Through mural painting and gardening, CCA students and faculty reflect on ancestral land and ecological care.
Students collaborate with Dr. Jonathan Cordero and Sara Moncado from the ARO to finalize the mural design.
On the unceded lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone, CCA seeks to be accountable to Indigenous sovereignty and presence. Our relationship with the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO) is guided by their leadership and cultural protocols, and reflects their ongoing contributions to art, architecture, and design. The Land Acknowledgement is one step in a continuing effort to honor these responsibilities and to help deepen public understanding of Native sovereignty.
This summer, in collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Cordero and Sara Moncado from the ARO, and guided by Critical Ethnic Studies Chair Shylah Hamilton, students and faculty from the Remembrance in Place: Mural and Garden Lab studio course engaged in hands-on learning around mural painting, garden installation, and site stewardship, while examining settler colonialism, ecology, and creative resistance. The mural is located on the corner 7th and Hooper Street, leading up to the main entrance of the campus.
Led by Critical Ethnic Studies faculty Jack Leamy, the mural project challenged students to approach mural-making as both an artistic and political practice. One panel blurs beauty with unease, showing invasive animals and plants beneath an interrogation lamp that resembles the sun. The other depicts an apocalyptic San Francisco, overtaken by monsters and floodwaters. Through the process of designing and painting, students grappled with the question: What does it feel like to be a settler on stolen land?
Mural panel 1. Design: Enrique Beltran, Flynn Goodwin, Yudi Hu, Cara Juan, Radhika Kothari, Vivyan Lau, Wenyan Luo, Ru Lyons, Bella Mendias, Gabriela Johanna Mierkalne, Rachel Moncayo, Zahabiya Sakarwala, Xuanxuan Shangguan, Yenan Wang, Yiting Xia, Yaru Yuan, Cimy Zhang, Lin Zhong. Painting: Sebastian Abrea, Sofia Esquivel-Herrera, Zipporah Hinds, Jack Leamy, Angel Lusky, Camila Montero, Vivyan Nadkarni, Ryan Nagamine, Janette Olmiala, Mischa Ugoretz.
“The vision is to have a continuous dialogue about decolonization, asking what it looks and feels like to be on stolen land,” says Leamy. “It’s important that we reflect that in the building itself, make that statement, and feel those feelings. Working with the ARO helped us see past our cultural blinders, guiding us with clarity and humility.”
Animation student Sebastian Abrea discovered new ways to think about composition, storytelling, and responsibility. “The mural and garden project made me think about our impact on the environment: who benefits and who’s harmed,” he says. “I’m now more intentional about how I use composition to express a message, and how the placement of people, animals, plants, and objects can change the way a story is told.”
Mural panel 2. Design: Enrique Beltran, Flynn Goodwin, Yudi Hu, Cara Juan, Radhika Kothari, Vivyan Lau, Wenyan Luo, Ru Lyons, Bella Mendias, Gabriela Johanna Mierkalne, Rachel Moncayo, Zahabiya Sakarwala, Xuanxuan Shangguan, Yenan Wang, Yiting Xia, Yaru Yuan, Cimy Zhang, Lin Zhong. Painting: Sebastian Abrea, Sofia Esquivel-Herrera, Zipporah Hinds, Jack Leamy, Angel Lusky, Camila Montero, Vivyan Nadkarni, Ryan Nagamine, Janette Olmiala, Mischa Ugoretz.
Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii), a native California wildflower, will be planted beside the mural. Photo by Gail Williams.
Led by Critical Ethnic Studies faculty Gail Williams, the garden project reimagines a garden as a space for cultural resurgence, healing, and resistance to colonial systems. Students created to-scale drawings of their garden designs, with plans to plant 11 indigenous species beside the mural. They explored how gardens serve as living archives of ancestral knowledge, inviting the question: What does care look like on stolen land?
“Plants transfer their ancestral knowledge, teaching, food, and medicine with every season," says Williams. "We need to learn from them and share that knowledge with others. The garden site, imagined and designed by my students, is for this sharing.”
The Remembrance in Place projects underscore that Land Acknowledgment is an ongoing process rooted in listening, care, and accountability. It’s lived in the murals we paint, the gardens we tend, and the stories we choose to tell.
CCA President David C. Howse and Interim Provost TT Takemoto join students and faculty in painting the mural.
Special thanks
Heartfelt thanks to Shylah Hamilton for her visionary leadership in launching this project; to CCA President David C. Howse, Interim Provost TT Takemoto, and Humanities & Sciences Dean Jacqueline Francis for their continued support; to our partners at the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO), Dr. Jonathan Cordero and Sara Moncado, for their generous guidance throughout the process; and to Rene Bruckner, Jeremiah Jenkins, and the Public Safety Office for their assistance in making this possible.