www.vice.com: In the past few years if you’ve attended a progressive event—especially an arts event—chances are that it started with a Land Acknowledgment. Someone at the front of the room address the crowd, letting them know that the concert, book launch, play, or public gathering is taking place on Indigenous land. The intention of the statement is to recognize the unique relationship between Indigenous people and their traditional territories.
9 comments:
I really appreciate that I found this article because I don’t think I have had the chance until now to hear what indigenous people have to say about land acknowledgments. I feel like the general consensus – from a handful of people, not necessarily speaking for a whole vast community of people – was that it was fine as long as it was done right. But I also understand the main concern of how it makes it look like there are no more indigenous people left when that is just not true. I don’t know if to be against or for it, mostly because that is not my place to speak on the matter, and from these statements that I read there were generally mixed feelings. What I will be taking away is that if I were to deliver one of these to put some intention behind it and not just read off the paper, to actually connect it back to why it matters and why we are doing this in the first place.
I was actually really interested in this as well, so I'm happy that I found this article. I'm happy to be learning the history of the land that I live on, but it feels ingenuous, like we're saying these things but what are we doing to actually help the indigenous community? I've seen the complaint from a lot of indigenous people online, which was reflected in the article, that this sort of thing refuses to acknowledge the fact that there are still indigenous people living in these areas, it's not like this is a helpless thing where we are acknowledging what happened and can't do anything about it, we absolutely can. Although I'm no expert, I entirely support the idea of land back. It makes so much sense to me that control of this land will be given back to the people that originally had it, and honestly, I trust them much more to sustain it than our government. Until institutions are actively supporting their local indigenous community, I couldn't say how much good land acknowlegements are doing for the actual people that they entail.
Like Jem and Gaby I also have been curious how indigenous people feel about land acknowledgments. I've noticed at Carnegie Mellon, at least in the School of Drama, that oftentimes they are something read quickly at the beginning of class or typed into the chat. To me they have felt very performative, however, I am not indigenous and so I am very glad that I could read this article. I think that it is very important to acknowledge the land that we are on and the people who were there first, but like many people in the article state, we must acknowledge the people who remained on the land and the implications colonization has had on them. A lot of people in the article also expressed how they felt that the acknowledgments in the way they were being presented felt quite fake or performative, something an institution was doing to alleviate some of their white guilt instead of taking real action. I think it is really important to listen to indigenous people's thoughts and opinions on them and take feedback on how to go about in a more respectful meaningful way.
Honestly the first time I experienced land acknowledgements was the anti racist theatre course I took this year in the first semester. I honestly think the entire course felt disingenuous with everyone being forced to be there, especially the faculty. I think these courses are important however I don't think these courses truly open the floor to everyone from different backgrounds, rather speak for them. It was interesting to finally hear what other indigenous people think about the land acknowledgments as I think that the land acknowledgements is the perfect example of doing something just to seem "woke". I think that the land acknowledgements provide a way for people to understand that they are on formally indigenous land but it also is something for people to seem like they care when they truly don't. If you think about it, this article is correct when they say that it is just people reading something off of a piece of paper. Frankly I've had a professor say to our faces that they had to include this onto their syllabus and has been accused multiple times of being racist but the school has done nothing...
It is fascinating to see the conflict in opinions among Indigenous people when it comes to Land Acknowledgements. I understand where both sides of the discussion are coming from and I and very glad that I found this article to read. It gives me some perspective as to the true impact of the acknowledgement rather than just the perspective of the intent that I have gotten from my time at CMU. In terms of intent I have gotten the impression of everything on the spectrum from genuine desire to be respectful and educate to, as Akshatha said, simply being required to say it by someone else. From what I gathered from the voices in the article the intent is something that can make a land acknowledgement worth it and a good thing, or a simple disrespectful waste of time. It seems that the well thought out and well presented acknowledgements do the job that they were intended to, but the ones that are simply read off a piece of paper are rude. This article has definitely brought these perspectives into my view and in the future I will definitely be considering the intent behind doing a land acknowledgement before just reading one to get it over with.
Honestly, this article is kind of a learning experience for me. CMU was the first time I started a class with a land acknowledgement and yet I didn’t even think to learn about how indigenous people felt about it until I came across this article. I think my first action when introduced to something new like this should have been to listen because I am not the person to decide if it’s right or wrong since I’m not indigenous. There were a couple common messages that were said by all of the artists that really stuck with me. One was how important it is for the message to be active, genuine, and provide context to the relationships with the land and people. It can’t just be something we as an institution check off to be progressive because that ruins the whole point. Many of the artists said to not do it if you don’t understand why.
I found this article very interesting. I think this article was very well structured and give an opportunity for Indegiounous Artist to speak their opinions on the subject freely. The first thing that I thought about with this article was USITT. This past week most of the seminars were with a land acknowledgement. They had it up on the first slide and sometime the presenters would read the names of the tribes, or they would just say “here si the land acknowledgement. Also in the chat sometime people would be like “hello- hi- hi all” but sometimes there would be a precedent set that you would say hi, where you are, and what native lands you are on. I heard my first land acknowledgement at CMU and I have never really heard an opinion on the subject from an indiginous person before. I think people should take more consideration with the land acknowledgement and not just make it seem preformative.- Evan Riley
I actually find it quite interesting to hear the indigenous people’s opinions on land acknowledgements. As far as I can recall, the first time I heard a land acknowledgement was only last year, during our course on Anti-Racists Theatre. Prior to that, I had never really heard a “proper” land acknowledgement. Back in high school, I learned about some of the local tribes of the area, including the Chumash, Tongva, and the Kizh. That being said, these were not stated in the form of a land acknowledgement, more as an addressing on how some of the local areas were named including the Tongva park in Santa Monica, Temescal Canyon, and Topanga Canyon, during my environmental science class. That being said, once I learned what a proper land acknowledgement was, I began to wonder how indigenous people would think of them. The first ones that I heard seemed quite genuine and sincere, but I also began hearing acknowledgements that felt more like and afterthought that a priority, and it just felt weird and off. That being said, I have no indigenous lineage, so it is not my place to have an opinion on this type of matter, so it was interesting to see how those with indigenous lineage actually feel about it.
I am glad that this article took the care to hear from Indigenous people that have experienced the land acknowledgement and to give that honest account out to the world. I do not know how much of an opinion I can have about the land acknowledgement as a white person, but I can definitely see how the land acknowledgement can seem forced or even seem like a eulogy. The land acknowledgement is often just that- an acknowledgement. It is simply said who was there before us, without much elaboration. I think more can always be done to appreciate the people who were here before us, and sometimes the land acknowledgement can seem a bit performative. I also can definitely understand the way that the land acknowledgement puts native people in a position to hear opinions from others that they don’t necessarily want to hear. Like the article said, hearing somebody scoff or diminish a land acknowledgement could ruin a native person’s night, knowing somebody near them does not welcome or appreciate them. Overall, so much could be done to improve land acknowledgements, and it is time we address that.
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