This update on the new ITECK Center on PSU's Oak Savanna showcases the future of sustainability and interdisciplinary collaboration being pursued on the PSU campus. The 2024-25 academic year will present many opportunities for students to join the effort in partnership with students from across the university to realize this vision to reclaim the native Oak Savanna in the most sustainable way possible.
What is PSU's Oak Savanna?
The journey to reclaim an Oak Savanna in the Portland State University urban landscape for food, medicine, and ceremony began more than a decade ago with students seeking sanctuary on campus, a place to come together. Guided by student voices and their desire to experience and understand the cultural significance and value of connection with the land to heal and build community health and resilience, the Oak Savanna site was incorporated into Indigenous Nations Studies courses centered in Indigenous Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge (ITECK). They include Indigenous Gardens and Food Justice, Indigenous Ecological Healing Practices, and Indigenous Leadership for Sustainability. Students and Indigenous community partners gathered on-site in Talking Circles to listen to and share stories of Place and People, to participate in land blessing and seed scattering ceremonies, and to cultivate relationships with the land as they planted native White Oaks, Camas, Spirea and Serviceberry.
What is Friday@1?
On most Fridays at 1 p.m. during the academic term, PSU School of Architecture students and faculty gather to hear from professional designers and architects, academics, visiting artists, innovators, and students in the program. Friday@1 is a perfect way to wrap up each week of intense creativity in the studio and get inspired for the productive weekend ahead.
Free and Open to the public. All are welcome.