On Land Acknowledgements
My hot take on the process.
As some one who works on Indigenous visibility in a touristic city, I find myself creating a lot of time for land acknowledgements - whether that is organizing, connecting, attending, or delivering. After years of emails, I wanted to make a guide to point people to my perspective/opinions/experience on their purpose/outcomes/design.
A sharable link to this hot take is available through Bvlbancha Public Access.
What process of a good land acknowledgement?
The scenario I see work best is when a person who is Indigenous to the area in which the meeting occupies delivers a 1–5 minute in-person speech. In this speech they outline the original inhabitants of the land, acknowledge the forces of displacement and injustice which shifted their life ways, give tangible examples of continuing Indigenous thrivance in the area, and provide a call to action to ways in which the audience can contribute to community-defined growth.
In return for this service, the organizing committee compensates the Indigenous individual for their research and presentation. Equally important, the organization extends complementary attendance (as a participant or an observer) to the Indigenous person for the full duration of the event.
The best acknowledgements are organized in advance. Ideally committees reach out to the local Indigenous community a month before the event (see example request letter at the end). Committees sidle towards rude or inconsiderate if they are approaching with a request less than a week in advance. Within the request the dates, invitation to participate, location, meeting content, compensation, and expected time presenting are all clearly defined.
Land Acknowledgements feel passé, do Indigenous people even care if this is on the agenda?
Yes. The final result can be performative, insincere, and (unfortunately) often last minute. But this is at their worst. At their best, they are sincere, informative, and organized at least three weeks before the event. Whether the performance is effective in connecting with your audience is more of a reflection of the acumen of the planning committee and Indigenous representative rather than a judgement of the procedural function they serve.
A better way to judge the impact of the land acknowledgement is to consider the metric of success as an increase in the breadth and depth of relationships between your organization and Indigenous people. It serves as an opportunity for your organization to be briefed on local community issues connected to your field, and create ties that can connect into meaningful future collaborations.
For Indigenous communities, the process of connecting with organizations to plan an acknowledgement (at least three weeks in advance) is a helpful moment of placement and connection. What you may not know, is that when your organization reaches out to an Indigenous group or individual to request a land acknowledgement, it is rare that that person accepts without contacting a collective. Behind the surface of their confirmation email is usually a whole web of group chats where a network of Indigenous people are made aware of the request. This network considers the content of the event, current issues and projects and discusses the equity in the request. The reason for this care is we are trying to connect better with ourselves, and better understand who may best represent our interests in your organizations’ field, and who may benefit the most by being in the room with you. This chatter of discussion on land acknowledgement placement has become a place (at least in Bulbancha) where inter-tribal discussion and collaboration takes place in a meaningful and mutually beneficial way. It creates a place of expressing interest and listening to others that can be implemented to better coordinate growth and capacity building within our communities. It may seem small, but figuring out who to send to the geology convention helps inter tribal communities take census of interests, expertise, and existing relational connections.
By making place for land acknowledgement in your meeting agenda, your organization is, in a small way, supporting local Indigenous solidarity and progress.
We do not know anyone Indigenous in the area. Can one of the committee members deliver the acknowledgement?
The lack of relational connection between the local Indigenous communities and your organization is the precise issue. There is no way to stop organizations from doing this. There is no “land acknowledgement certification process,” but there is also no way to stop me from seriously judging you if you do. You may be in a committee where the group is not socially ready for acknowledgement or repair. I suggest you consider your role within these committees.
If you are working within a situation where the acknowledgement will be done by a land stranger, do not reach out to an Indigenous person to request they contribute a thoughtful and rich statement to your organization pro bono. The Indigenous person on the other side of that request will most likely feel that you are routing around an opportunity to develop meaningful relations. The process of requesting research and content from an Indigenous person is an acknowledgement of their ability an expertise. By subsequently not inviting them to join and standing in for their voice, you are displacing Indigenous knowledge. If you are requesting this for free, you are also extracting people’s time.
I get it, we are all busy. It is natural to want to rely on find the most efficient ways of getting things done. But if we are seeing land acknowledgements as a form of repair, we must prioritize relationships over ROI. The reason we are in a position of displacement is through a lack of care within processes. Your contribution to healing is to contribute to the creation of a more holistic and informed process.
If you MUST say something at the beginning of a meeting at the land acknowledgement time, lean on curator Adriel Luis’ example and suggest composing Colonial Shout-out.
What is a Colonial Shout-Out?
A Colonial Shout-out is a 1–5 minute short personal or community history created by a land stranger which describes the process of their access to this place. It defines the initial inhabitants, clarifies the laws, soft power, or social norms with lead to their occupation of the space. It updates the audience on the current status of these processes of displacement, and provides calls to action to revise these to achieve reconciliation.
Drafting a Colonial Shout-Out is incredibly helpful to the author. It personally grounds the speaker and the audience not only in the original inhabitants, but opens conversations about the structures and history that foreshadow the day’s events. It also requires the committee to acknowledge and research their position. This reinforces the concept of relationality as the process of developing the shout-out is the transformative change. A great way to end a colonial shout out is to challenge others to write their own within the places they occupy.
One great thing about a Colonial Shout-Out is that it can be done by anyone. IMO — committee-level self-reflection is ostensibly an untapped well for catalyzing meaningful change.
Organizing an event so that there is a Land Acknowledgement followed up by a Colonial Shout-Out is a vastly impactful 5–10 minutes which can ground your participants in the context of place to really start designing and collaborating in a new way.
I do not have a budget for a land acknowledgement.
This is poor planning on your part. Acnowledgements takes effort and energy, and should be compensated just as your time is compensated. If you are also not being compensated for organizing an event, that is also unfair.
A good rule of thumb is to apply your hourly rate to planning the budget. Be sure to factor in not just the time for the acknowledgement, but any time before they may be required to show up to make sure they are available on queue (aka the speech or session directly before). Be sure to give directions and compensation that covers parking. Unlike out of town participants who are naturally at your event, they will need to drive and park. Many of times I have done Land Acknowledgement in downtown Bulbancha for free only to leave with -$30 because I had to park. It doesn’t feel great.
Another critical component of the relational compensation of acknowledgements is the invitation to attend. If the goal of acknowledgement is to further progress towards equity, a simple and effective way to achieve this is to get more Indigenous people in the room. Not every person who delivers a land acknowledgement will want to stay for the duration of your event, but some will. Sometimes when given the chance and time the Indigenous community has selected and sent a specific individual to the event because of their interest and connection to the topic. This understanding or relational connection may not be evident to the committee members.
Establishing a default process of invitation allows local Indigenous communities to benefit from the specialized knowledge and understanding your organization brings to their land. It also gives your participants a chance to perceive that for the duration of the event, Indigenous people are, in fact, still here.
Sample Land Acknowledgement Request
Hello ___,
My name is [name] I am the [job title] for [organization], a(n) organization which [mission].
In [date] we intend to hold our [type of event] titled [event name] at the [physical event location] in [city].
As we prepare for this, we would like to include a [land acknowledgement duration/format] for a land acknowledgement. This would take place [date, time, or any other context on when it would happen]. We wanted to reach out to see if you or someone else you knew would be available to deliver this.
We understand these take time and effort, and would like to offer a [honorarium, stipend,other] for your time. We would love to invite the presenter to also attend the rest of the proceedings as a [define what type of access to the event you want them to have].
We reached out to you as we [reason why you are reaching out to them]. We understand if you are not available, not interested, or know a better fit. We would appreciate if you could give us any recommendations and contact information if you have a suggestion for another person to take on this role.
Please let us know your thoughts as soon as possible as we work to organize. If we do not hear back from you by [response deadline] we will assume you have declined and look elsewhere.
Thank you for your time,
Your Name
Your Org
Org Website