Last September, representatives from the PlayGround leadership, staff, board, company, writers, audience and supporters came together as the PlayGround Equity Workgroup, meeting monthly to review and address the demands of #WeSeeYouWAT and the Living Document BIPOC Equity Action Plan, and to help review and establish PlayGround policies to assist in this critical work. In March, we shared our Anti-Racist policy. While the work is ongoing and will continue, we wish to share another important step taken in our work toward building an equitable theatre for all — the development and adoption of PlayGround’s Land Acknowledgment Policy, created in partnership with representatives of the Ramaytush Ohlone and Lisjan Ohlone and other Indigenous leaders. As noted, the policy is applicable to all PlayGround gatherings, programs, meetings and activities. The policy will be published on the PlayGround website, posted in our spaces, and shared with all board, staff, employees, contractors, contributors, attendees and the greater community through email, social media and our digital playbill, and will be updated annually. We look forward to sharing more of our efforts in the weeks and months to come.

In community and solidarity,

PlayGround Equity Workgroup
Angel Adedokun / Diana Burbano / Victoria  Evans Erville / Norman Gee / Jim Kleinmann / Brittany Mellerson / Katja Rivera / M. Graham Smith / Chris Steele / Annie Stuart /  Jomar Tagatac

Land Acknowledgment

2021

This policy is applicable to all PlayGround gatherings, programs, meetings and activities.

AUTHORIZED BY:      Equity Workgroup
VERSION:                      Version 1
DATE:                             July 2021
REVIEW:                       January 2022

Land Acknowledgment Policy

PlayGround will offer a land acknowledgment prior to all public programs, in-house developmental activities, as well as board, staff and committee meetings. In addition, PlayGround will publish the land acknowledgment on its website and post it in its physical spaces.

Land Acknowledgment Statement

PlayGround acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush (RAH-my-toosh) Ohlone (oh-LOW-nee) and Lisjan (lih-SHAH-n) Ohlone, the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula and East Bay, respectively. As the past and present Indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the Ramaytush Ohlone and Lisjan have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. We recognize the historic injustice of the forcible removal of the Ohlone people from their ancestral lands, and that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the Ancestors, Elders and Relatives of the Ramaytush and Lisjan Communities and by affirming their sovereign rights as First Peoples. We honor the storytellers of the Ohlone and are grateful for our ability to share and uplift Indigenous stories and those of other historically marginalized communities.

In working with artists from all over the country, PlayGround asks that each artist representing a different geographical space respectfully acknowledge the legacy of the land they inhabit.

Reparations 

As a small way of contributing to the Ohlone people and to assist in the preservation of Indigenous culture, PlayGround will annually contribute two (2) weeks of free access to spaces managed by PlayGround, including Potrero Stage and the PlayGround PlaySpace, for exclusive use by Indigenous artists and organizations.