Remembering Forward

Restoration Through Storytelling:

"From September 2023 through May 2024, Ecotrust partnered with several organizations to host a series of gatherings called the “Restoration Through Storytelling Series.” These events were designed to elevate ancestral innovation and the agricultural wisdom of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the Portland, OR area.

Eco Trust partnered with Vanport Mosaic during the 9th Vanport Mosaic Festival that honors the City of Vanport, its residents, flood survivors, and their descendants.  As part of the festival, Ecotrust displayed an art installation at the historic Alberta House with a map display made by artist Sophia Xiao-fan Austrins. This visual collection of memories aimed to uplift the places that nourish those who later became displaced from Vanport. The installation sought to acknowledge the effort it took for Vanport residents and their descendants to make new lives for themselves in the Portland metro area."

 - Alisha Howard, Ecotrust 

A map for a memory and storytelling invites Vanport residents, survivors, and descendants to write a story of community they associate with a place in Vanport, and a story/memory of community in present day Portland, and pin those locations on the map.

Photos by Ben Anang