With its newest sculpture, San Diego State is hoping to launch a new era of the university’s Kumeyaay Land Acknowledgement.
An expression of respect for the Indigenous people who originally inhabited the land that is home to the campus, the Land Acknowledgement is recited at convocation, commencement and special events.
The aluminum and bronze sculpture in front of Hepner Hall, “Stargazer,” is the first installation in SDSU’s planned Living Land Acknowledgement, an art series with interactive, immersive and virtual learning components to complement the written and spoken acknowledgement.
“Stargazer,” by Kumeyaay artist Johnny Bear Contreras, installed near the Koester Memorial Sundial, includes a face angled up at the sky, On the sculpture is a QR code that, when scanned, offers viewers a lesson about Kumeyaay bird songs, an important component of storytelling in the Kumeyaay culture.
“It’s beautiful that we acknowledge the first people of this land and we wanted to embed something that allows our students on campus to say, ‘Hey, what’s that?’” said Jacob Alvarado Waipuk, chair of Tribal relations at SDSU. “… It allows people to discover the land acknowledgment rather than having it fed to them.”
SDSU is targeting the fall 2024 semester for a celebration formally introducing the Living Land Acknowledgement to the community.
By the time the project is completed in December, six sculptures, all designed by Contreras, will grace high-traffic areas around campus, chosen with input from students with the Native Resource Center, as well as others who are invested in SDSU’s relationship with the Kumeyaay community.
“This isn’t just about the art pieces. It’s about the QR code. That’s going to be the doorway, that’s going to be the window, the access to stories, to songs that have been on this part of the continent since time immemorial,” Contreras said.
The Living Land Acknowledgement is the result of a collaboration between the resource center, SDSU Story Lab, the Virtual Immersive Teaching and Learning Research Center and the Division of Student Affairs and Campus Diversity.
More artwork for the program is planned at SDSU Imperial Valley, along with a series of stand-alone QR codes for virtual experiences on the walking paths at the SDSU Mission Valley river park.