For this project, I would like to highlight the usage of land acknowledgements and how it begins to seem like an empty gesture if no further discussions are being held about them. Since the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had been released, more and more places started to adopt the practice of acknowledging the land they are gathered on, but many Indigenous people have felt that this has become more of a performative gesture that alleviates guilt. There are concerns that hearing such statements about the land they are on might simply become background noise and just another thing to check off on the list in the spirit of reconciliation. Saying them makes it feel like activism, but has no consequences from saying them. To some, land acknowledgements feel like a eulogy, recognizing that Indigenous people once lived on the land, until they didn’t, and now it’s “ours”, which makes them seem like a part of the past. Although land acknowledgements may seem like a good way to start a conversation about reconciliation, it simply isn’t enough anymore.
I would like to communicate this to students from K-12, as they have they are more willing to learn and in turn educate other people such as their peers and people in their household and beyond. Implementing new curriculums about Indigenous land and history in school will help bring their history into conversation or at least a deeper awareness and understanding with younger people. If schools are able to teach their students to care about the state of their planet in the wake of climate change, encourage them to go to climate rallies in the city, and show them ways to act sustainably, they certainly have the ability and means to be able to teach them to care and understand the history of Indigenous people and the land that they live on (since Aboriginal people have always lived in the interest of the well-being of the land long before talk of climate change came around).
I’ll be working with Amanda for this project.
PUBLISHED JANUARY 24, 2021 (11:18AM)
LINKS:
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/01/09/why-land-acknowledgments-arent-worth-much-opinion
https://etfofnmi.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Going-Beyond-A-Land-Acknowledgement-FINAL-VERSION.pdf