Former Provost Virginia Hinshaw joined Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef on May 27 for a preview of the new outdoor reflective space honoring the American Indians who once lived on the land that would become UC Davis.

The project’s official unveiling is not scheduled until the fall, but planners took the opportunity to show it off to Hinshaw while she was visiting from Hawaii, where she is chancellor of the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

As UC Davis provost and executive vice chancellor, she allocated $214,000 for design and construction of the first phase of the remembrance project, officially the “Project to Honor Native Americans — The Original Inhabitants of This Land.” (The project came in under budget at about $195,000, said Sid England, assistant vice chancellor for Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship.)

Phase 1 comprises a trail and circular sitting wall, plus landscaping and basalt column markers, along the arboretum waterway, between King Hall and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

“It is so fitting to have this in such a beautiful place, to honor Native American culture, the people and the land,” Hinshaw said. “It is a place where we can meditate, remember and look to the future.”

Elder Bill Wright of the Patwin tribe said the new reflective area offers encouragement to American Indian students, telling them that they belong here, that they belong in higher education — and they can say, “I’m a part of this.”