The André Cailloux Center for Performing Arts & Cultural Justice holds land acknowledgments as an act of remembrance for the original land and water protectors of the region in which we make our work and craft community. It is a ritual that goes beyond acknowledgement to inspire action around the displacement of Indigenous/Native peoples caused by involuntary removal, forced assimilation, ethnic erasure, and cultural appropriation. As the current and ancestral homeland of the Chitimacha, original inhabitants of Bulbancha – “place of many tongues,” the Choctaw name for the city – we acknowledge this as a place of unceded land in a region first occupied by the Biloxi, Houma, Choctaw, Tunica, Atakapa Ishak/Chawasha, and Opelousas. The Center holds space for the histories, culture, and experiences of those who first lived here and were the first stewards of this land. We move with the knowledge that this history of settler colonialism affects all of our work, and it is imperative to actively counter its effects with how we show up as a community partner and institution. 

 

We also acknowledge the exploitation of labor exacted from the Wolof and Bambara people of West Africa who were forcibly extracted from the continent. Their skills, and talents, and those of their progeniture, were integral to the making of New Orleans’ infrastructure, economy, and culture, and built this nation. These groups have not been nor will ever be forgotten within our walls. Their descendants, and other members of exploited or marginalized communities, have a place at the Center. We wholeheartedly support and uplift our collective movement towards dignity, self-determination, equity, and justice. 

 

Bayou Road is the oldest thoroughfare in the city of New Orleans. In spite of colonization, and its progeny gentrification, Bayou Road remains a center of transnational and multicultural exchange.“2541 Bayou Rd.” serves as the site and citation of fugitivity and marronage, reclamation of history, culture, narratives, agency and space, and as embodied memory honoring past generations and future ascendants.

 

We say Asé to the caretakers, protectors and  Houma, Choctaw, Biloxi, and Chitimacha people of Bulbancha. We say Asé to our Wolof and Bambara ancestors of West Africa, whose blood is in the soil and soul of this place. We say Asé to the peoples of this land, whose names we do not know, whose names have been lost, stolen, or purposely erased.