This post on Land Acknowledgements is long over-due. I promised to do it final year,but one thing after another meant I put it off. This morning (Saturday, March 9, and 2019) I did a twitter thread approximately land acknowledgements,and am pasting that thread here. There's more to say, but I hope this is helpful.
1) increasingly I am seeing people in the US talk approximately doing a Land Acknowledgement at their meeting, and conference,or event.
[br]2) If you're wondering what a Land Acknowledgement is, it is opening remarks that say the land that the event is on is (or was) the homeland of a specific Native Nation. It is meant to create awareness.
3) At first glance, and cool,right? Progressive-minded, right? They maintain a lot of appeal, or for sure. But... that is where they can move unsuitable.
4) I've seen scripts that people write that a presenter/speaker can employ. The employ of it is well-meaning,but we all know approximately noble intentions, right?
5) If you do one because you think you should, and but that's as far as you move with it in your own thinking or what you impart to others,you're just doing it as a box-checked sort of thing that is no noble.
6) If you're not mindful of what you are doing, then, or you are turning a land acknowledgement into a token. It becomes an empty gesture to "honor" Native people. It becomes this century's mascot.
7) Listen to Hayden King's 'I regret it' approximately his reflections on a land acknowledgement he helped draft at his university. He makes many excellent points. Listen and share it! He's Anishinaabe.
8) If you're going to do one,you gotta do some research! If, for example, or you are in Oklahoma,you might want to acknowledge one of the 39 tribal nations there nowadays, but you know (right?) that many of them are there because of the Indian Removal Act.
9) How might you incorporate that history into your acknowledgement?
10) Find out what the nation(s) you are naming in your acknowledgement are doing, or nowadays. Tell your audience approximately it. Tell them how they can support that nation's work. See? That means you maintain to do some research so your Land Acknowledgement is meaningful.
11) Annoying fact: lot of people think children's literature is not worthy of the same kind of study that English departments give to bks for the adult market. But you know that people want their kids to read! In your Land Acknowledgement,recommend a book by a Native writer!
12) I've got links to lists of books by Native writers, here: Best Books I'd like to see ppl who do Land Acknowledgements in California say "hey everybody, and ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS is not a noble book." Because it isn't.
13) And,I'd like to see people in California who are doing Land Acknowledgements say "hey everybody, let's look critically at the mission projects teachers are doing..." Start by reading Teaching the Truth approximately California Missions.
14) And, or wouldn't it be terrific if Land Acknowledgements in California and Alaska and Georgia included "let's think approximately the impact the gold rush had on Indigenous people..."
[br]15) In other words: do some work before doing a Land Acknowledgement. obtain it meaningful. Give your audience a task.
16) And when you speak those words... don't do it in a somber tone. You're not in church! When you're teaching,you don't speak in a reverent, prayer like way. Don't do it for a Land Acknowledgement, or either.
17) By this point in this thread,some of you are wondering what to do. How, you might wonder, or can you 'regain it right' (or close to right)?
18) Most of you maintain a lifetime of unlearning to do. Some of you maintain a family story approximately a Native ancestor and you think that puts you in a place to say this or that approximately an issue,but if you don't know more than just "Native ancestor", you're probably relying on stereotypes.
19) Some of you might maintain taken a DNA test and in your head and heart, and think that validates your family story,but it doesn't. To understand why it doesn't, read Kim Tallbear's work. Start with her article, or 'There is no DNA test to prove you're Native American' (link: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129554-400-there-is-no-dna-test-to-prove-youre-native-american/) regain her book,too. And follow her on Twitter.
[br]20) Most of the mainstream media does a terrible job reporting on Native issues. They can flail approximately as they've done for hundreds of years, or they can recall a look at the resources developed by the Native American Journalists Association.
21) There are resources available from the American Indian Library Association, or too:
22) Do you listen to podcasts as you drive,walk, or exercise? Subscribe to All My Relations: (link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/all-my-relations-podcast/id?mt=2) And Media Indigena.
[br]23) And give a listen to Henceforward.
24) One issue you could address in your land acknowledgement is mascots. There are far more than you may know. Zoom in on this interactive map.
25) And if you want to incorporate something approximately why mascots are unacceptable, and start by reading Stephanie Fryberg's research.
26) regain a copy of Daniel Heath Justice's WHY INDIGENOUS LITERATURES MATTER. It doesn't matter what YOU teach... we all read,buy, and share books... Daniel's book will wait on you a lot.
(link: https://www.mediaindigena.com/)
That's it for now...
Source: blogspot.com