Module 4 Post 4
I know others have found resources about the importance of Land Acknowledgements, and I have selected a few local resources for my Treaty 7 region.
The first is from the Calgary Foundation whose mission since 1955 has been and continues to be to nurture a healthy, vibrant, giving, and caring community. The Foundation has a playlist of 4 different acknowledgments that provide a history and context for the acknowledgment and is has an elder representative from each of the Treaty u First Nation profiled in the video. This is a good option to introduce a course at the beginning of the term as it provides more context and information than just an opening Land Acknowledgement and also helps build instructor familiarity and confidence around the delivery of a land acknowledgment.
There is another one from the Calgary Public Library that is child-centered, but I really enjoyed it too!
And this one emphasizes the importance of the Land Acknowledgment as conveying a sense of relationship and stewardship of the land, not ownership, which is something that had still alluded me until having watched this video where it was explicitly explained.
References
Calgary Foundation. (2019, January 27). Land Acknowledgement (Full) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7re1r0FY-4Y
Calgary Public Library. (2020, May 12). Treaty 7 Land Acknowledgment [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jqskc3man4
SOURCE-Scholarly Output Research Creative Excellence. (2020, April 23). Indigenous Voices – Land Acknowledgment [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HtG7j19na4
Hi Brenda,
I look forward to posts about land acknowledgements. Would you create a land acknowledgement and use the same one for all your courses? I wonder if a land acknowledgement should ever be updated and revised for any reason.
Emma
Hi Emma, Yes, I think I would create one acknowledgment for use with all my courses – the audience and context are very similar for all so it makes sense to do so, but if the audience or context changed, I could see building a different one (which is what I liked about the examples I gave, they were very different from each other and showed that they need not be all created in the same format). I do think that acknowledgments warrant updating to reflect the changing circumstances. Thanks for asking and expanding the conversation! B.
Thanks for sharing the Indigenous Voices video. Stephen Paquette very clearly makes several important points:
– there is no land ownership in the Indigenous worldview (this is such an important concept as we understand treaties)
– acknowledgements should also be about relationships with Mother Earth – how land is shared with plants, animals and the importance of water
– many Indigenous peoples were nomadic and so the land was home to many different Nations
Hi Dee Dee,
Yes, I love his overview – it helps set the Indigenous worldview as the basis for the acknowledgement, which might get lost otherwise is the tone of formality of the acknowledgement.
Hi Dee Dee,
Yes, I love his overview – it helps set the Indigenous worldview as the basis for the acknowledgement, which might get lost otherwise is the tone of formality of the acknowledgement.