How Indigenous land acknowledgements can miss the point
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Land acknowledgements — the recognition that Indigenous people were the original inhabitants of American land — have become more common among academics, nonprofits, companies and celebrities and even in social media bios.
Why it matters: The well-meaning attempts to educate non-Indigenous people can fail to make their desired impact if they aren't paired with more concrete action to support Indigenous communities.
- Lydia Jennings, a citizen of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, told Axios it "can't just be one and done," saying that it needs to be a "reminder of having ongoing action — of being a steward, continuing to do things, of making space, making [systemic] change."
The big picture: "After millennia of Native history, and centuries of displacement and dispossession, acknowledging original Indigenous inhabitants is complex," per the National Museum of the American Indian.
- "Many places in the Americas have been home to different Native Nations over time, and many Indigenous people no longer live on lands to which they have ancestral ties."
State of play: While land acknowledgements are not new in the U.S., America's reckoning with race in 2020 prompted more institutions to adopt them, Jennings said.
Zoom in: In Seattle that year, the Space Needle commissioned an art piece from Indigenous Tacoma artist Paige Pettibon "to create a permanent place for our land acknowledgement," per the tourist attraction's website.
- Seattle Shakespeare Co. and other local theaters include land acknowledgements on their websites, while an acknowledgment of the Duwamish tribe is painted on the side of Seattle Mennonite Church in North Seattle.
Between the lines: The phrasing of a land acknowledgement can sometimes put Indigenous people in the context of history, rather than in the present, said Michaela Madrid, the program director at Native Governance Center and a citizen of Lower Brule Lakota Sioux Tribe.
- Many universities, which have often spearheaded diversity, equity and inclusion measures, have adopted land acknowledgement statements. But they should also be paired with funding to help Indigenous students and hire Indigenous faculty, Jennings said.
With this in mind, several local institutions around Seattle have drafted land acknowledgements recognizing that words alone are inadequate.
- The United Way of King County, for instance, calls its land acknowledgement "a first step," which "only becomes meaningful when combined with accountable relationships and informed actions."
- And the Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle's Central District cites a responsibility to "disrupt Indigenous erasure, colonization and oppression."
The bottom line: "The point and the power of land acknowledgement is that it does serve as a powerful reminder that Native folks are still here," Madrid said.
- "But it should be a reminder that our contemporary needs and issues should also be considered."