While we have “California” in our name, we recognize that the stolen land that the Partnership works within and exists on has originally been stewarded by Native people since time immemorial. This includes 110 federally recognized Tribes and 81 unrecognized Tribes whose land, ancestors, and current people and power we seek to honor. Our staff are spread across areas home to the Nisenan, Maidu, Me-wuk, Tongva, Acjachemen, Muwekma Ohlone, Conestoga-Susquehannock, Southern Pomo, Graton Rancheria peoples.

Domestic violence and colonization share the same core strategies of power and control. As an organization committed to decolonizing our work, we recognize that:

• we engage with the U.S. Government, an entity which continues to have a complex and sometimes harmful relationship with Native communities.
• Traditional Knowledge Systems embrace diverse gender expression and consider Two-Spirit people sacred. We apply this wisdom to our Prevention for LGBTQIA+ Communities Peer Learning Circle.
• in order to improve the systems supporting survivors, we must enhance our understanding of the specific harm to Native women—over half of whom have experienced intimate partner violence in the U.S.—and their unique roles in preserving their cultures for current and future generations.  
• we make better progress with domestic violence prevention when we partner with Native people who are already leading critical strategies: strengthening children’s and youth’s bond to their cultures, writing new laws that allow Native people to stand in their sovereignty and seek justice, and bringing people who harm into a space of responsibility to survivors and their communities.

To make progress in our work to end domestic violence and support healthy communities, it is essential for us to honor Native people’s sovereignty and unique traditions. Our land acknowledgment is an effort to be accountable to Native people, and especially our members—to repair the harm caused by colonization, and the ripple effects within the movement to end domestic violence.  We commit to doing better as an organization and as individuals by:

• building sincere and reciprocal relationships with Native people
• ensuring that Native people are present for decision-making at the Partnership
• being present to learn from Native people in spaces where they are already working to address domestic violence
• applying principles of equity to our membership by waiving dues for Tribal & Native organizations