1. Resources
  2. Decolonizing and Indigenizing
  3. Land Acknowledgements

Land Acknowledgements

"looking up the main trunk at the limbs and leaves""Queen’s University is situated on Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory.”

You may have heard this spoken, but do you know what it means? Land or territorial acknowledgments have become increasingly common in Canada, but can be challenging to do authentically. The Office of Indigenous Initiatives has a good resource and also offers workshops. To learn more about the history of the land known as Canada and the land known as Kingston, a few starting places include:

Video: Land Acknowledgments

The information in this video is my current (May 16th 2023) interpretation of peer reviewed scholarly articles, my lived experience, and various conversations I have observed and participated in over the years. The context of these conversations includes around kitchen table discussions, sharing circles and ceremonies, administrative committee meetings, activist gatherings, and academic discussions. Contributors to these conversations include elders, youth, and otherwise knowledgeable members from Indigenous communities from across Canada and the world. Contributors also include non-Indigenous individuals ranging from ally and non-ally settlers to international friends who, although familiar with oppression forms in their homelands, are only just learning of Canada’s colonial context. The personal interpretations presented have been reviewed and guided by mentor Lindsay Brant, a Mohawk woman from Kenhtè:ke, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario, an Educational Developer with the Center for Teaching and Learning and an Adjunct Professor with the Smith School of Business. This video represents my current (May 16th 2023) interpretation of the above-mentioned information gathered over the years and this interpretation will evolve over time as I, and society, move forward in reconciliation.”

Video: Meaningful Land Acknowledgements

Video by Lindsay Brant, Centre for Teaching and Learning

Two useful critiques of land/territorial acknowledgements are:

 

Authorship and Acknowledgments

This webpage was written by Robin Attas, Ph.D, settler educational developer in the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Queen’s University. Assistance and ideas came from Lindsay Brant (Mohawk), Ian Fanning (Algonquin-Settler), Laura Maracle (label-resister and mixed-race woman consciously living in Haudenosaunee tradition at Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory), Tim Yearington (Algonquin-Métis), and various Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of the Indigenous Knowledge, Curriculum, and Research Working Group of the Indigenous Council of Queen’s University.