Beyond the Land Acknowledgment | Faculty of Arts

Great info.  Thanks for sharing.

I have posted the Land Acknowledgment and will read it to my students (or more likely, ask them to read it aloud) but that's definitely just a beginning.  I teach creative writing and am beginning to use examples from Indigenous writers ('There, there'  is a good example of many writing techniques) but that's not enough.  However, I'm thinking about it and I like the "Where am I?" feature because anything interactive is good. So, thank you for this information, Maria Coletta McLean

Such a great job, I will share it with faculty. 

Solmaz

Indeed, it is significant to familiarize students with the land in all possible ways to enhance their understanding, respect, and inclusiveness. In my online course at the School of English and Liberal Studies, in addition to embedding Land Acknowledgement in distinct ways, we have included writings from Indigenous authors to cover certain topics. I intend to emphasis on the intellectual contributions and origin of the author while working on such topics to go beyond Land Acknowledgement. 

Here's a follow up to my intention to read the first week and ask students to read the next weeks.  I also asked some students to support the reader by reading from There, there (Tommy Orange) and this coming week, 6 students will read (they're practising the reading so the sound of the drums and the dancing comes through in their voices).  This is easy for creative writing students since their interests are words and voices etc but I think it could work in most classes -- that part's up to you.  I'm attaching the paragraphs here:

There There
a novel by Tommy Orange

• MICHAEL (DAI DUNG)“There are hundreds of dancers in front of him. Behind him. To his left and right. He’s surrounded by the variegation of color and pattern specific to Indianness, gradients from one color to the next, geometrically sequenced sequined shapes on shiny and leathered fabrics, the quill, bead, ribbon, plume, feathers from magpies, hawks, crows, eagles.
• MORGAN There are crowns and gourds and bells and drumsticks, metal cones, sticked and arrowed flickers, shag anklets, and hairpipe bandoliers, barrettes and bracelets, and bustles that fan out in perfect circles. He watches people point out each other’s regalia. He is an old station wagon at a car show. He is a fraud.
• ALEC He tries to shake off the feeling of feeling like a fraud. He can’t allow himself to feel like a fraud because then he’ll probably act like one. To get to that feeling, to get to that prayer, you have to trick yourself out of thinking all together. Out of acting. Out of everything.
• KALEYAH To dance as if time only mattered insofar as you could keep a beat to it, in order to dance in such a way that time itself discontinued, disappeared, ran out, or into the feeling of nothingness under your feet when you jumped, when you dipped your shoulders like you were trying to dodge the very air you were suspended in, your feathers a flutter of echoes centuries old, your whole being a kind of flight.
• JAY To perform and win you have to dance true. But this is just Grand Entry. No judges. Orvil hops a little and dips his arms. He puts his arms out and tried to keep light on his feet. When he starts to feel embarrassed, he closes his eyes. He tells himself not to think. He thinks the thought Don’t think over and over.
• PREETINDER He opens his eyes and sees everyone around him. They’re all feathers and movement. They’re all one dance.”

One thing that I feel is often missing from these, and a correction that we've been able to implement in is that the Acknowledgements are too terra firma based. I get that they're called "land" acknowledgements but to neglect to mention the waterways leaves out a crucial element of what I understand of the Indigenous environmental perception. Water is life, but it is also the routes that connected communities and made trade possible and this is especially true in our part of the continent. Perhaps this needs consideration.

By incorporating a Land Acknowledgement statement into my classes, both by posting it on the blackboard and reading it aloud, I try to engage students in meaningful discussions about the original stewardship of the land and the rich history and diverse culture of native peoples. My goal is to demonstrate my respect for indigenous peoples and their history, and I am committed to finding more ways to incorporate land acknowledgement into my teaching.

Thanks!