http://www.megaphonemagazine.com/unceded_territory
Visited 24 October 2018
This 2016 article provides a helpful overview of some of the history and varying perspectives of land acknowledgements in Vancouver and Victoria. Okanagan Grand Chief Stewart Phillip offers a hopeful perspective saying, “Its [sic] encouraging to know we have made that kind of progress [to hear official acknowledgements . . . from Vancouver city council]. We’ve come a long way from the dark days of racist denial that existed when I first got involved” while Musqueam First Nations activist Audrey Siegl (sχɬemtəna:t) says these sorts of acknowledgements are “just tokenism, pretty but empty words, spoken so we will be pacified for at least a little bit longer.” Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps states, “It’s simple, really—it is their territory,” referring to the Songhees and Esquimalt people. However beyond a political platitude I wonder what it actually means to say that the city of Victoria “is their territory.”