PSU 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.

Over the years the Oak Savanna site has been the focus of student research and projects as well as seasonal gatherings and work groups. We recognized that reclaiming the urban forest for food, medicine, ceremony, and healthy lifeways had found a timely synergy with agencies and community partners working in culturally responsible restoration, education, reclamation and protection practices. Indigenous students and community members visited the Harrison Street Building to envision an ITECK Center embedded within the Oak Savanna. Located on the south end of the site that runs along the Walk of the Heroines, we imagined the possibilities of a building to host diverse gathering spaces for people, plants, and items of cultural significance for learning, understanding and healing. Community and students imagined indoor spaces: a kitchen, Indigenous library, a classroom and seating areas transitioning seamlessly into the outdoors, featuring culturally significant native plants, storytelling circle, and an outdoor kitchen for traditional Salmon bakes and Camas roasting.

In 2019 Professor Sergio Palleroni with the School of Architecture joined students and community on the site to assess the building and begin a collaborative imagining process that culminated in a Spring 2021 Design Studio course focused on creating an ITECK Center from the Harrison Street Building. Studio students and Judy BlueHorse Skelton met several times throughout the term with onsite visits and class conversations reflective of Indigenous community practices and priorities guided by Indigenous traditional ecological and cultural knowledge. Students considered “What does it mean to be indigenous to place and how does the land inform the values of community to act on behalf of future generations?  How do Indigenous ways of knowing support the revitalization of traditional foods and food sovereignty for Indigenous communities to heal from the long-term effects of historical trauma? What might a building and its urban surroundings look, feel, sound and taste like and how best could it serve the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of the community?

These relationships deepened in 2021 with the Indigenous Nations Studies students and the School of Architecture students sharing workshops, classes and seasonal events on the Oak Savanna site. Through observation and deep listening, guided by Indigenous practices, values and respect for the Land, students identified key elements for the site: Designing with nature; Using locally sourced natural materials; Orienting to the Four Directions and honoring Water, Earth, Light and Air. With the generous support of PSU Facilities staff, students began creating outdoor gathering spaces, incorporating large logs and rocks found on campus into gathering circles and planting Strawberries and more Camas.

In June 2022, students, Indigenous community and partners joined together at the Oak Savanna ITECK Center Summer Gathering for the Architecture graduate students’ charette, highlighting a year of collaborative visioning and their innovative designs. The thoughtfulness, humility and compassion students brought to our conversations are reflected here. Their work embodies themes of cultural, social, environmental and restorative justice, resiliency and sustainability, and the thinking, designing and living for the Seventh Generation.  It is an honor and joy to continue this healing journey together, sharing in this transformative process with the Land and one another.