City of Aurora and Land Acknowledgements
On August 15, 2022, the City of Aurora rejected the a land acknowledgement proposal that would have required a reading of a land acknowledgement at City of Aurora events. The decision was a blatant disregard for Indigenous rights, and several offensive comments were made by City Councilmembers during the discussion.
Several organizations and members of the Colorado AANHPI for Action coalition penned a letter of their disapproval regarding the decision. The letter was also presented by a member at a Aurora City Council. To view the text of the letter, please see below:
To the Members of the Aurora City Council:
We are a coalition of Asian American Pacific Islander organizations and leaders located in Aurora and across Colorado writing to express our extreme disappointment and disagreement with your recent rejection of the land acknowledgement proposal made on August 15, 2022. The recent Aurora City Council decision (specifically the decisions from Mayor Coffoman, Councilmember Jurinsky, Sundberg, Gardner, Zvonek, Lawson, and Bergan) and comments regarding land acknowledgement are an absolute offense towards the Indigenous community and their allies.
This rejection shows a blatant disregard for Indigenous rights and an acute misunderstanding of history, made even more damaging coming from elected officials. Aurora is one of the most diverse cities in the entire nation, and to have city officials who are unwilling to see beyond their experiences and into the reality of other communities is an affront to us all.
Colorado has a long history of violence and discrimination against Indigenous groups- the Sand Creek Massacre being one prime expample which saw the murder of several hundred Arapaho and Cheyenne civilians.The recent actions of Aurora City Council are a continued injustice to the Indigenous community. We implore City Council to not only adopt land acknowledgements, but also to learn more from Indigenous groups about their history in Colorado.
We also strongly urge Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky to rescind her statement, “I am adamantly against this, and if we have an entire department working on things like this, like I said, unless we’re going to acknowledge that this is God’s country, I can’t even believe this is coming to City Council tonight.” America was not built on Christian values, but on religious freedom. Such a statement is blatantly ignorant, and also shows a distinct lack of separation of personal religious opinions from matters of the state.
The Asian American Pacific Islander community in Colorado stands in solidarity with the Indigenous community on this matter. We respectfully request that the Aurora City Council provides a reply to the Indigenous people they serve and addresses the harm that this decision has caused.
Signed,
ActionAgainstHate.org
Asian Avenue Magazine
Ascent Inclusion Consulting, LLC Asian Girls Ignite
Asian Pacific American Bar Association Colorado Asian Culture and Education Network
Colorado Asian Pacific United
Colorado Dragon Boat Festival
CORE: Community Organizing for Radical Empathy
Dean Tsutsui
Ellen Woo
Erin Yoshimura, Empowerful Changes
Faye Caronan
Far East Center
Gil Asakawa, Nikkei View LLC
Hannah Hoong
Japanese Arts Network
June Homdayjanakul, Colorado School of Public Health
Little Saigon Denver CO
Mimi Luong
Mile High Japanese American Citizens League
NineFold, LLC
No Ke Aloha
Noreen Naseem Rodríguez
People’s Advisory Board for New Educational and Economic Goodwill
Rachele Espiritu, Change Matrix
Riyaz Gayasaddin
Sakura Foundation
