MARJDI Is...
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The Manistee Area Racial Justice & Diversity Initiative was launched in September 2019 by concerned citizens who wanted to work together to make the Manistee County area a more racially just, diverse, and welcoming community for all.
Our successes include having placed "WELCOME" signs in local businesses and adoption of a "Racial Justice, Inclusion, & Diversity Resolution" passed unanimously by the Manistee City Council in May 2020 and adopted by many of our county townships and community organizations as well. We periodically present events, webinars, and other opportunities to educate ourselves and our community about issues of racial justice and anti-racism work, Native American history and experience, Black history and racism in our area, and the experience of LGBTQ2IA+ individuals in our community. |
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"Since December 2020, MARJDI has operated as a fiscally sponsored project of the Manistee County Community Foundation."
We Acknowledge the Indigenous Land We Reside on...
Manistee occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and of all of the Anishinaabek of the Three Fires Confederacy--the Odawa (Ottawa), Ojibwe (Chippewa), and Bodewadmi (Potawatomi) people. In particular, Manistee resides on land ceded in the 1836 Treaty of Washington.
We recognize, support, and advocate for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. We further recognize the ongoing relationship of dependence upon, and respect for, all living beings of earth, sky and water.
We collectively understand that offering a Land Acknowledgement does not absolve settler-colonial privilege or diminish colonial structures of violence, at either the individual or institutional level. By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold ourselves and our community accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples.
We recognize, support, and advocate for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. We further recognize the ongoing relationship of dependence upon, and respect for, all living beings of earth, sky and water.
We collectively understand that offering a Land Acknowledgement does not absolve settler-colonial privilege or diminish colonial structures of violence, at either the individual or institutional level. By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold ourselves and our community accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples.
MARJDI is fiscally sponsored program of the Manistee County Community Foundation.