Brockville, like so many other places in Canada is treaty land and the people who live there are treaty people, as are we in Steinbach. Some of my friends are tired of land acknowledgments. Not me. I find them interesting and I believe they are worth thinking about when you hear them. Here is the land acknowledgment I found on the website of Southeastern Ontario tourism the region where Brockville is located:
Land Acknowledgement
“We would like to acknowledge that the land we identify as South Eastern Ontario is the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee (Ho-de-no-sau (“sho”)-nee), Anishinaabe (“anish-naw-bee”), and Huron-Wendat Peoples. South Eastern Ontario honours and respects the land, the people, and the Treaties. We are extremely thankful for the original tour guides of these lands and all that they have shared. All those that reside, work, and play on these lands are treaty people and we must honour the treaties in a mutually beneficial and equitable manner.”
What I want to acknowledge is that various peoples live here. Not just descendants of European settlers. The settlers and their descendants are here because they entered into agreement with the local Indigenous groups to occupy it. Those European settlers and their descendants benefited tremendously from those treaties. The Indigenous people also benefited from those treaties. Everyone who lives there today, is a treaty person. We should not take those treaties for granted. Treaties are important for everyone. And as I have been saying, we should keep them up to date, or we will regret it.
The problem is that too many liberals see an injustice, mouth platitudes agains them and do nothing real to address thinking the find words are enough to prove their moral worthiness. Indigenous people and Canada need more than that.
Treaties have their deficiencies too. It all fine and good to signal our moral worthiness by making fine sounding statements. Acknowledging that one is aware of the fact of dispossession that occurred in America, and Canada too, when European settlers arrived in vast hordes but as
However, having said that, land acknowledgments have their deficiencies too. Kathleen DuVal wrote an interesting and critical article for the New York Times about land acknowledgements from an American perspective.
Du Val said, all too often, “they’ve begun to sound more like rote obligations.” That doesn’t mean the acknowledgements should be abandoned, it does mean those of us who like them need to get real. We have to actually do something or persuade our political leaders to take action on our behalf.
Du Val said this, “Instead of performing an acknowledgment of Native peoples, institutions should establish credible relationships with existing Native nations. What I disagree with is the word “instead.’ Rather I would say, “In addition to.” We need to do both. The acknowledgments alone are clearly insufficient.
She also pointed out, that the Native Governance Center in the U.S. said that unfortunately land acknowledgements have often “become an excuse for folks to feel good and move on with their lives.” Journalists Graeme Wood and Noah Smith have criticized such acknowledgements as “moral exhibitionism.” Land acknowledgements that lead people to think that is all they need to do can become harmful and we must work hard to make sure we don’t fall into that that trap.
For example. Du Val claims that land acknowledgements can reinforce the harmful “myth of Indigenous disappearance. That myth is a long-time mental block in the US but I am not sure it is as common and in Canada. Perhaps my Canadian indigenous friends can tell me if I am wrong about that. If I am, then we must take active measures to disable the myth too and must not allow land acknowledgements to stand in our way.
Indigenous People in Canada and the U.S. deserve more than that. They deserve sincere engagement on the part of their countrymen and women. Its time for action following our words.