Saw my first “land acknowledgment”

jon-nyc

I’m at the National Health Council’s Health Leadership Conference and a guy started his presentation with a ‘land acknowledgment’. He tailored it for Coral Gables, where the conference is, as opposed to VA which is where his foundation is based.

Horace

I hope he found it cathartic. I also hope he cares enough about the indigenous people to research them for longer than it takes to craft a virtue signal intro for a speech.

Mik

They had it, we took it. Just like every other piece of land has been many times.

89th

@Mik Indeed, and eventually someone will take this land from us.

Horace

@89th said in Saw my first “land acknowledgment”:

@Mik Indeed, and eventually someone will take this land from us.

The Republicans are plotting this as we speak.

jon-nyc

@Horace

You think? I haven’t heard as much secession talk in the first years of the Biden Administration as I did under Obama.

My assumption is that it has to do with having a conservative court. The right was winning enough culture war skirmishes to keep the secession talk at a low simmer.

Horace

@jon-nyc said in Saw my first “land acknowledgment”:

@Horace

You think? I haven’t heard as much secession talk in the first years of the Biden Administration as I did under Obama.

I heard lots of talk about our Democracy being at risk just a few months ago. I bet you heard that same talk. And I bet it resonated with you.

Renauda

@89th

Arguably Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and to a much lesser extent, the Netherlands and even Russia, all have a fairly legitimate claim to various parts of all North and South America.

jon-nyc

Out of curiosity I googled “land acknowledgment generator”. There are lots of tools where you give them a North American zipcode and it spits out the tribes.

Some include writing advice.

Horace, you might find this useful:

When writing your statement consider whether you are in a privileged space. In some cases, acknowledgments do not need to have action items attached because the people writing the statement do not have access to resources. However, if you are writing for an organization, such as a university, you absolutely should include a call to action. The more privileged space the more capacity you have to empower the Indigenous peoples whose land you stand on.

jon-nyc

And there’s this:

Check Your Statement

Go through the following questions to ensure that your statement is sensitive, respectful, and empowers indigenous peoples.

  Have I put **at least an hour of research** into my land acknowledgment? Do I know enough about the Indigenous people I am speaking about? Did I make sure I am not missing any tribes?

  Am I honest and open about the history of the Indigenous peoples I am acknowledging? Am I acknowledging their pain? Am I also acknowledging a positive future?

  Did I acknowledge the past? The present? The future?

  Did I identify any treaties that were signed in the past and/or are currently in effect?

  Did I include an action statement that demonstrates the future actions I will do to commit to empower indigenous peoples?

Remember, a land acknowledgment is the first step.

Aqua Letifer

Link to video

Copper

Mr. Biden will invite the Chinese to come marching down Main Street USA eventually.

Then it will be their problem.

We'll see which indigenous types get their share.

Mik

What earthly good does land acknowledgement do for any indigenous descendants, few to none of which are present at these events?

Aqua Letifer

@Mik said in Saw my first “land acknowledgment”:

What earthly good does land acknowledgement do for any indigenous descendants, few to none of which are present at these events?

You know what's funny? They did that a lot in Oz, but they literally owned the land. (Thanks, Eddie Mabo!) So in a legal sense, it was theirs. Acknowledgement was part of the deal of companies, institutions, whomever continuing to use it. And reps from the indigenous group were present. But they were cool, the rest were cool, it made sense and it was no big deal.

Kinda weird this way, though.

Mik

Meaningless virtue signaling.

The New Coffee Room

Saw my first “land acknowledgment”