Hayden King is a professor of Indigenous politics and policy at Ryerson University. In an interview on the program CBC program, Unreserved, he discusses the territorial acknowledgement that he wrote for the University in 2013. As these acknowledgements become more commonplace he addresses how they have become superficial and ineffective, doing a disservice to the treaties. He would like to see the acknowledgements updated to include a statement of action at the end. “This is the land that we’re on and this is what we’re going to do to breathe life into our obligations to those communities and those treaties.” (King, 2019)
CBC Radio. (2019, January 18). ‘I regret it’: Hayden King on writing Ryerson University’s territorial acknowledgement. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/redrawing-the-lines-1.4973363/i-regret-it-hayden-king-on-writing-ryerson-university-s-territorial-acknowledgement-1.4973371
Thanks for sharing, DeeDee. This circles back to something we spoke about early in the course about whether or not people really hear the land acknowledgement. I had and idea about having students (or staff) make a list of acts of reconciliation and after they say the acknowledgement remind them of an action they can take. I found a list here: https://activehistory.ca/2017/08/150-acts-of-reconciliation-for-the-last-150-days-of-canadas-150/ that might be a good place to start.
This is a terrific resource Allison! Thanks. I am going to use as part of my project.
DeeDee,
I’m very appreciative of the fact that you brought up action statements when it comes to policy development and implementation. Earlier on in the course, many of us discussed the hypocrisy inherent in speaking to concepts like reconciliation but with no substantive plan of action to follow through on them. Without such substance, it becomes difficult to believe in governmental commitment to these crucial concepts going forward. Great post!