Visual Resources Association 2026 Land Acknowledgement

An online conference means we can connect with one another from many different places. As the Visual Resources Associationmeets for our 2026 Conference, Zooming In, we acknowledge that cultural heritage work has both a colonial history and present. Particularly in a year when many of us attend this conference from our own homes and workplaces, it is incumbent upon us to lessen the ongoing, harmful impact of settler colonialism in our work.

Both individually and collectively as a profession, there are things we can do.

What members of VRA can do:

1. Support and uphold ethical stewardship:

   1. engage in critical cataloging 

   2. pursue equitable partnerships

   3. appropriately enhance the visibility of underrepresented artists

   4. facilitate the repatriation of stolen collections

   5. work to mitigate the climate impact of visual resources work

2. Support the hiring, retention, and promotion of your Indigenous colleagues

3. Join the Equitable Action Committee

4. Investigate tribal and cultural groups on whose lands you work and live:

   1. Native Land Digital: https://native-land.ca/

   2. Bureau of Indian Affairs: https://biamaps.geoplatform.gov/Tribal-Leaders-Directory/

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Donation Links:

In support of The National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive (NIBSDA) the Visual Resources Association has donated $400 to The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.

Please consider supporting these additional organizations: 

• Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, & Museums: https://www.atalm.org/

• ICCA (Indigenous Curatorial Collective): https://icca.art/about/

• ILSR (Institute for Local Self-Reliance): https://ilsr.org/broadband/tribal-broadband/

• Local Contexts: https://localcontexts.org/

• National Digital Inclusion Alliance: https://www.digitalinclusion.org/

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Resources:

About Visual Resources Work

• Best Practices in Authority Work Relating to Indigenous Nations in the U.S.

• Collaborators’ Bill of Rights

• Creating subject headings for Indigenous topics : a culturally respectful guide

• Decolonization Methods for Creating Inclusive Technologies

• Embracing a Complicated Relationship: Indigenous Museum Practices

• Indigenous Knowledge Organization, X̱wi7x̱wa Library

• Local Contexts Labels & Notices

• Recruitment, Retention, and Experiences of Art Library Professionals

• Toward a Decolonial Archival Praxis: Digitizing the Lloyd Best Archive in Trinidad and Tobago 

About Land Acknowledgements

• Beyond the Land Acknowledgement

• A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgment

• Guide to Indigenous Land and Territorial Acknowledgement for Cultural Institutions 

• 'I regret it': Hayden King on writing Ryerson University's territorial acknowledgement

• Native Land