GBH honors the Massachusett, Wampanoag, and Nipmuc peoples, whose ancestral lands provide the foundation for GBH’s Massachusetts studios, bureaus, and transmitter. We honor the cultures, contributions, and connections of Native Indigenous peoples to our work, our local community, our Commonwealth, and our nation. Further, we recognize the importance of moving beyond acknowledgment towards action. We commit to learning from, including, and elevating Native Indigenous peoples’ perspectives, voices, and languages locally and nationally through our public media mission.
GBH has embarked on a process of education and deeper learning. Our journey was sparked by the desire to create a land acknowledgement for our organization, but we can and should do more. The United States of America was established out of the genocide of Native Indigenous peoples and the severing of ancestral relationships with the land and its animals. As an educational media organization with national and local audiences, we have a responsibility and an opportunity to support Native and Indigenous peoples’ voices and stories, to bring visibility to their issues and concerns, and to challenge colonialist narratives that have shaped the way history has been taught. GBH calls all employees affiliated with the institution and its work to help transform this shared intention into action.
Why a Land Acknowledgement?
Catalyst, GBH’s first employee resource group for BIPOC employees, created the foundation of this work. GBH's Land Acknowledgement Committee was officially formed in April 2022, and for a year worked to develop a Land Acknowledgement for the organization. During this process, a number of things came to light, most importantly that before we can say the words, we must do the work. That is why, more than focusing on the creation of a Land Acknowledgement, the Committee strived to make a Commitment to Actions, that commits us to working with Indigenous people to find the ways in which we as an organization can culturally honor them and tell their stories. This means building relationships. This means listening. This means doing the work that they ask of us, rather than simply doing the work we want to do.
The Land Acknowledgment Committee
Yemisi Oloruntola-Coates
Chief Inclusion & Equity Officer
Chris Hastings
Executive Producer WORLD Channel
Cindy Zollinger
Director of Project Development and Operations
Cory Allen
Senior Director of Audience Insights and Research
Dorothea Gillim
Executive Producer, Molly of Denali
Creative Director, GBH Kids
Kate Kataja
Board Relations Manager
Leah C. Abrams
Diversity Relations Coordinator
Sandra López Burke
Managing Director of Community and Government Relations
Sue L. Kantrowitz
VP & General Counsel
Tara Mayes
Children’s Media and Education Communications Manager
Tina Cassidy
Chief Marketing Officer
Yatibaey Evans
Molly of Denali Creative Producer
Now that a Land Acknowledgement and Commitment to Actions has been created, GBH's units, departments, and staff will, according to their needs, activate the objectives set forward.