Land acknowledgements

At an outdoor event a few months ago the group leader interrupted himself and said, “I forgot to do a land acknowledgement. I’m so sorry. Who’s land is this?” One of the participants called out aggressively, “It’s God’s land.” The exchange was followed by a few awkward moments and then the event continued.

At the Lodge we put on many public events and as someone who is deeply committed to land acknowledgements I am aware of a growing resistance. The last time I introduced an event, when I began to say something about the land, a fellow sitting directly in front of me rolled his eyes and shook his head. It was an unmistakeable gesture to let me, and the people sitting near him, know that he was displeased.

I wonder. Are land acknowledgements here to stay? Or, will the Canadian public grow tired of the demonstrations of good will?

My understanding of land acknowledgements is that they are acts of reconciliation—an acknowledgement that Canada dispossessed the Indigenous population and claimed sovereignty over the land that makes up this country. The dispossession is a pretty straightforward part of Canadian history. But it has plagued Canada since before it became a country. And it’s not just history. While governments continue to vigilantly defend their sovereignty in the courts, Canadian jurisprudence invariably sides with First Nations peoples’ rights and title over their territories.

Because these battles take place largely out of sight and out of mind, at a sort of sub-strata level, very few Canadians witness them or take them seriously. Yet, while I don’t like to use war metaphors, Canada is in an ongoing and constant battle defending its claims and staving off a potential tsunami of First Nations land challenges. The combat zone is not on a battlefield it is in the courts at a legal cost that would likely rival mounting a military assault.  

There have been some significant wins on the Indigenous side. The “doctrine of discovery” has now been thoroughly debunked and most of us agree the lands of North America were not “discovered.” “Terra nullius,” the idea that the continent was empty because there were no Christians, has also been soundly discredited. It’s a start.

Then there are land acknowledgements. A practice that I think got popularized in British Columbia, has spread across the country. People are also doing land acknowledgements in certain spaces in the US. It has been a massive project of consciousness building. Slowly, some of us, are getting some of it:

Way back, before history as we know it, the land was previously inhabited. The early inhabitants have continuously inhabited the places we call home. Settlers unsettled and continue to unsettle the people and the land. They made land about ownership. Land is not about ownership. Land is about respectfully dwelling. Land is about having respectful reciprocal relationships with the place where we dwell. Land is bigger, older and more powerful than human beings. Land was here before us. It is here with us. It will be here after us.

Wonder if we really believed the land acknowledgements? Wonder if human beings everywhere practiced land acknowledgements? In Israel and Palestine? In Ukraine and Russia? In the Amazon? In the United States?

Canadians have a chance to be leaders in forming a new, more respectful relationship to the land. Indigenous worldviews—their “old” land-based worldviews—have a lot to contribute to what could be a new worldview for all Canadians.

I hope we don’t lose our momentum. We don’t need to roll our eyes. Land acknowledgements are maturing and becoming more inclusive. They are not about putting settler peoples in their place or giving priority to Indigenous peoples. They are about land and about human—all human—relationships to the land. In the past. In the present. And in the future. Why not take a few minutes when we gather for our human celebrations to acknowledge that everything is not about us? Just a few moments to feel part of something bigger than us.