What Is a Land Acknowledgement?
A Land Acknowledgment for Jacksonville, Florida
In recent years, I have occasionally seen what I now understand is called a “land acknowledgment” at the beginning of an event. They last just a minute or two as someone takes the microphone to say that we are meeting on land that was occupied by… and then went on to name the indigenous people who had lived there before colonization. Typically, in my limited experience, Native Americans led them.
It is wonderfully jarring to me to experience that. To be seated in a hotel, typically with big corporate signs inside and out, and hear about the ancestral claim of living people to land now occupied by the United States (or other colonized country). It is a memorable juxtaposition.
The practice began to appear in 2015 in Canada and has spread to the United States.
Last week, I attended a training conducted by Jess Petitt, a professional speaker who addresses diversity, equity and inclusion. She raised the issue of land acknowledgments and provided some helpful information for preparing them. She’ll be a guest on my show here in a few weeks.
Before you can acknowledge the indigenous people who lived where you’re holding your meeting, you need to know who they are. The resource Jess recommends is the website native-land.ca. The site prominently warns that this is a work in process, but it is a great place to start.
Once you have the names of the tribes that may have lived where you’ll be, a web search for those tribal names will quickly help you identify who thinks of your meeting site as their territory.
How to Organize a Land Acknowledgment
The Native Governance Center provides a guide to land acknowledgments. It starts with a discussion of why land acknowledgments are important, offering a powerful statement from Northwestern University on the topic:
It is important to understand the longstanding history that has brought you to reside on the land, and to seek to understand your place within that history. Land acknowledgements do not exist in a past tense, or historical context: colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need to build our mindfulness of our present participation.
The site provides four essential aspects to consider:
Introspection. You’ve got to think about why you want to do it, the site says. Just because it’s trendy is not a good answer. A desire to right historical wrongs is a more appropriate motivation.
Research: For most of us outside the Native American community, some thoughtful research is required to learn about the people who occupied the land before colonialization. A land acknowledgment should be done respectfully, requiring that you have the basic facts correct and that you can pronounce the names correctly.
Honesty: The site says, “Don’t sugarcoat the past. Use terms like genocide, ethnic cleansing, stolen land, and forced removal to reflect actions taken by colonizers.”
Remember the Living: In your script, be sure to use present tense and future tense references to the indigenous people as well as past tense. Despite efforts at genocide, most tribes have living representatives.
There are more considerations you should read on the site.
A Land Acknowledgment for Jacksonville, Florida
Today, I live on land that was occupied by the Timucua people, one of the largest Native American cultures in the region. Just to the south, the Seminoles live. North of us live the Mvskoke (Muscogee).
The National Park Service operates a preserve named for the Timucua here in the Jacksonville area in Northeastern Florida. The official site indicates that the people were exterminated in the 1700s. Wikipedia details the process of eradication but hints that there are likely genetic survivors among the people in this region, especially among Native Americans.
A little over a decade ago, a group of such people established the Native American Tribal Republic of Timucua. A live website apparently last updated in 2011 represents a group of people who identify as Timucua. I’ve reached out to see what I can learn.
I hope to explore and learn more in the coming months and years to find ways to be of help beyond acknowledgment.
And, we miss you, too ... in a very big way!
Very informative. D5420's Native American Initiative might be a good place to start Land Acknowledgements in Utah. How is your new life adventure going?