They’re fucking passive. They should directly implicate the US. Instead of “We are on unceded land of the Salish people” we should say “The US government stole this land from the Salish people and genocided their tribe”
The problem with them is that they’re bullshit. We have them here in Australia “We recognise that this is the land of XYZ”
No you don’t. You haven’t given those people any legal right over their land. You might as well be saying nothing.
My problem with land acknowledgements is that they don’t come with any concrete action afterwards. The passive voice “land was taken from you” would almost be bearable of they followed it up with “here’s a qr code to donate” or something.
To me it almost feels like bragging about the land you took. There’s never any intention to do reparations or anything like that.
This is a good point.
I think there are probably a lot of things wrong with them. By example, I know of groups that use land acknowledgements and are also Zionist, which should say a few things about how land acknowledgements are understood (performative) and what impact they really have (a spirit of virtue signaling and whitewashing). Basically… these are people that would happily give land acknowledgments for a (hypothetical) future ethnically cleansed Palestine but will actively promote the ethnic cleansing when it’s right in front of them.
The only good ones I’ve seen throw some very serious Land Back claims in there along with other demands.
There is an organic food farm around here that lets local leftist groups use it for training. I went there once and the owner woman was all land acknowledgement this land acknowledgement that, I’m just taking care of this land for the local indigenous tribe. Then I go on her instagram and it is stuffed full of zionist shit lmao. These things are somehow totally compatible.
If I had to guess they’re probably in that sect viewing zionism as a wildly successful indigenous land-back movement for Jewish people (as though this pasty white woman were indigenous to the Levant or israel’s land claims have any historicity at all) and so tell themselves they have solidarity with indigenous people on occupied Turtle Island as a “displaced” person.
“I have an announcement: I recognize that I stole this hat from you. I’m interested in showcasing the history of this hat when it belonged to you by including images of you on the back of it.”
“Oh cool, but can I just have my hat back?”
“No, it’s too late for that, I’m already wearing it.”
I think land acknowledgements should only be used as a bit, like before sex or bowling. All current situations where companies and governments are doing land acknowledgments should, at the very least, be a check for reparations and ideally some form of reform to integrate indigenous leadership into positions of power.
