Obviously not in maga space but I’m curious if it occurs in left wing spaces ever.
I lived in Hawaii for a few years, and while I wouldn’t say that it happened all the time, it was fairly common. In other parts of the US, I can think of only maybe a handful of events where I have seen it.
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That makes sense given indigenous culture is much more surfaced in Hawaii.
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I think it is done sometimes at universities and colleges because they’re packed full of Radical Socialist CRT Trans people.
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SYSK recently had a podcast episode about land acknowledments:
IIRC it actually started in Australia or New Zealand but hat recently gained momentum in Canada and the US.
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This is good stuff, thanks.
What rubs me the wrong way about land acknowledgements is that they are not combined with substantive policy to actually improve the lives of indigenous Canadians. In isolation they are good and we should almost certainly keep doing them, but in my experience they’re pretty darned close to liberal “thoughts and prayers” for indigenous people. Hopefully they are actually a leading indicator of real change.
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You might enjoy this:
Memorably describes acknowledgements as “receipts provided by a highway robber.”
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for public events? lol no. A lot of corporations do this performatively, though, often with unintended comedic effect
eta: not “a lot” of corporations, but many of a certain type of corporation will do this (e.g. patagonia, airbnb etc). I think I remember a recent letter from the CEO to the grunts in the trenches after a layoff that started with such an acknowledgement.
Acknowledgement of traditional landowners is commonplace here now. I think it’s good for major community events like sports games and concerts and stuff. I tend to roll my eyes more when people want to do it to a group of 5 people on a company zoom call or something. It’s a bit like how doing a military ceremony, playing the Last Post and having a minute silence for the fallen is fine at sporting events but would be a whole lot weirder if Karen from accounting wanted to do the same thing at morning tea.
When you add in that a lot of these people saying stuff like “we acknowledge the Kaurna people as custodians of this land and pay tribute to their elders past present and emerging” have never so much as spoken to a Kaurna person in their lives, it starts to feel a lot like tokenism and window dressing. Like ok with the magic incantation out of the way we can go back to the business of turning the poor into Soylent or whatever.
I remember the anti-union podcast that I think it was Starbucks? put together, to explain to workers that unions are bad, actually, started with a land acknowledgement.
Edit: ok no it was REI
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This is where the issue becomes really complex. There is no real world where the land can be given back to indigenous people. If that’s the goal it’s literally impossible.
The actual goal needs to be reconciliation and compensation.
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Yep, when my brother-in-law graduated from San Jose State they began the ceremony by acknowledging the Ohlone people who acted as caregivers to the land that is now the SJSU campus.
Yes, this is what I was thinking of, lol
Just once, on a telework meeting led by a Canadian (and Canada-based) employee of my US-based company who also explained the tradition.
my local brewery does monthly land acknowledgment (mostly on social media) and uses the proceeds of one day (i think $1 of every beer sold) each month to donate to the duwamish tribe (unrecognized). it’s called “rent is due”, and while performative, it really doesn’t bother anyone.
If you go to a Nature Center or tour or something in California they will usually talk about the cultures in the area before the Spanish got here.
Politicians do this and often seem insincere when they do - as bobman was pointing out.
There were also some other events that made Biden decide against holding large public events in the Summer and Fall of 2020. Biden consciously limited big public appearances because of Covid, which, in hindsight, probably cost him some votes b/c it let Trump get even more unopposed free media via local coverage of Trump trips.
I wouldn’t call it performative because they are actually making donations.
Recently, these proctors discovered that Rekognition was mistakenly registering faces in photos or posters as additional people in the room.