Syracuse University News
By Jen Maser
Those strolling through the Kenneth A. Shaw Quadrangle may notice a new addition to the landscape this week, as the first phase of a new Onondaga Art Installation—led by the Indigenous Students at Syracuse (ISAS), Native Student Program, Ongwehonwe Alumni Association and Haudenosaunee/Indigenous alumni representatives—is complete and fencing around the installation has been removed.
The Onondaga Art Installation, which was first requested by Indigenous students, will serve as a permanent acknowledgement of the relationship between Syracuse University and the Onondaga Nation and the University’s presence on ancestral land.
This initial phase of the project establishes the footprint and landscape for the art installation on the southeast corner of the Quad, outside of Bowne Hall and across from the Orange Grove. The planting of a white pine tree within five granite pillars seeks to represent the Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which was made of five nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca (Tuscarora would join in the 18th century).