On April 2, Onondaga Community College celebrated the grand opening of its new Indigenous Student Center during a ceremony in Mawhinney Hall.
Guest speakers and performers included Oren Lyons, Rex Lyons, Sid Hill and Chris Thomas.
The Indigenous Student Center is open to all students and is located on the second floor of Mawhinney Hall in room M275.
During the ceremony, a new land acknowledgement was also shared: “We here at Onondaga Community College acknowledge with respect the Onondaga Nation, the Firekeepers of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, whose homelands the college now stands upon. We work to honor this important and long-lasting relationship, for present and future generations, with the nation from which we derive our name.”
OCC also announced a Haudenosaunee Art Festival that will be held on the Onondaga Community College Quad Saturday, Aug. 9 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The event will feature arts and craft vendors, food trucks, live music, dance shows, fashion shows, and a smoke dance competition with cash prizes.
The Haudenosaunee Art Festival is sponsored by Honest Engine Films and is being organized by Irv Lyons, OCC’s admissions coordinator for Native/Indigenous students.
