National Group Meets in Albuquerque to Bridge the Gap between Cities and Sovereign Nations
ALBUQUERQUE – The City of Albuquerque welcomes the Mayor’s Institute on City Design (MICD) for the Bridging Boundaries Special Session. From September 4th to the 6th, Mass Design Group will the host the Special Session dedicated to supporting Native American constituents across urban-rural communities. During this event Mayors and Tribal leaders will gather to discuss ways to bridge the gap between sovereign nations and municipal jurisdictions to better serve Native American constituents and explore housing solutions.
“The City is driven by a shared vision of its Native community being recognized, respected and celebrated,” said Mayor Tim Keller. “Building culturally appropriate housing solutions for our Native American constituents will not only bridge boundaries, it promotes generational wealth-building.”
The MICD is a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors. Through collaborative sessions, programs, and resources, they help mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. During this Special Session, mayors including Mayor Tim Keller, Mayor Becky Daggett from Flagstaff, Mayor Travis Stovall from Gresham, and Mayor David Holt from Oklahoma City, along with Bobby Gonzalez, Caddo Nation Chairman and Octavio Escobedo III, Chairman of the Tejon Indian Tribe will work with design experts to find solutions to find solutions to planning and design challenges they are facing in their communities.
“We’re honored that Albuquerque is where the first ever MICD Special Session about supporting Native American constituents is happening” said Sonya Lara, Director of OEI. “It shows that Albuquerque continues to be a national leader in terms of its policies and relationships with the Indigenous community.”
MASS Design Group, the host of this Special Session, expands access to design that is purposeful, healing, and hopeful. As a team of over 200 architects, landscape architects, engineers, builders, furniture designers, makers, writers, filmmakers, and researchers representing 20 countries across the globe they believe that architecture has a critical role to play in supporting communities to confront history, shape new narratives, and project new possibilities for the future.
The Special Session will build upon the City of Albuquerque’s Native American Housing Survey, a first of its kinds survey in which 660 respondents shared what was important to them and what homeownership means to their families.
“Our ground-breaking housing survey for the Indigenous community in Albuquerque has laid the groundwork for the conversations being had during this Special Session,” said Kyle Tapaha, Chair of the Commission on American Indian & Alaska Native Affairs. “Albuquerque was the first to conduct such a robust survey to understand the housing needs of Native American constituents before even talking about solutions.”