I was introduced to Territory Acknowledgements and to the specific issues of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis People on Turtle Island by my co-conspirator Petra Kassun-Mutch.

Petra offered a Territory Acknowledgement at the start of our first workshop together in Toronto back in 2016. Like many people first encountering this practice, I wondered what the whole thing was for and why Petra took it so seriously. My first learning step was to ask Petra if she would teach me about the practice and why it was important– and so I learned about Canada’s reconciliation program and also more specifically about the people on whose territory we were holding our Toronto event. This started me on my own inquiry about Territory Acknowledgements as a decolonization and reparations practice.

In part because so many of my colleagues are Canadian and also because I began to feel responsible for decolonizing myself and my own world, I started to share a land acknowledgement at the beginning of the meetings and workshops I held, and I put a brief acknowledgement in my book and my (prior) website. I also began to use the term Turtle Island to refer to North America.

To offer a proper land acknowledgement meant, of course, that I needed to learn more about the history of the lands and waterways where I was living and working and then write my own personal and location-specific statement. Especially once I moved to Chicago, I had to learn more about the particular people of the Council of Three Fires (both past and present) and start to create my own relationship with the history of this land before colonization and in the colonized present.

It was often challenging to find the good balance between being the (white) person to offer a territory acknowledgement in situations where this was a new practice, and not to use it as virtue signaling. I was also challenged not to treat the practice as something static– but rather as an invitation to keep growing in my understanding and my advocacy.

I’ve had some great support in these practices from Petra Kassun-Mutch, from Kelly Diels, and from other feminist business people (largely but not only in Canada). Alana Nuget helped me find more resources and introduced me to the work of Ta7talíya Nahanee, Squamish. I purchased Ta7talíya Nahanee’s Decolonize First workbook and participated in her workshop on Territorial Acknowledgements as a way to deepen my practice. I especially appreciate learning from Feminuity, as their acknowledgement and reparations practices continue to provide a great possibility model. Check out Feminuity’s work in their guide to Developing and Going Beyond Land Acknowledgements and when you get their newsletter! Most recently, I learned from reading Shulamit Ber Letov’s anti-oppression statement.

I also had a bit of a “Woke Karen” moment last year at a local museum where I went to see an exhibit of Native art… and noticed that the exhibit’s land acknowledgement contained an error (one that I’d made earlier myself, where I mixed up the order in which I mentioned the Ojibwe, Odawa and Pottawatomie people– which matters since we settlers should take our cues from the original stewards of the land and follow the way they name themselves.) On this journey we colonizers take responsibility for helping other (white) people. (Even if you are only ½ a step ahead– or at the same place– working together can help collective learning and practice.)

For me, some useful steps included going to exhibits and events about local and nationally based Native people, talking to my friends about Chicago’s colonial history and also its current Native people, paying attention and supporting local Native political initiatives, and contributing financially to Land Back organizations.

Resources to Consider

There are many ways to learn more about Native/ Indian issues and contribute to decolonization efforts.

Rather than try to offer a comprehensive set of resources, or devolve to sharing the same ones that so many others are sharing, here’s an idiosyncratic set of resources that I’m using to learn, to decolonize, and to create new practice.

Following and supporting these organizations:

• Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative. CAICC is a network of seventeen Native American organizations and programs that join together to collectively work on improving conditions for Native Americans in the Chicago area.
• Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance Advocating for and supporting all levels of food security and food sovereignty in local, tribal, regional, national and international arenas
• Native Justice Coalition A platform for heading, social, and racial justice by and for Native American People
• Indigenous Women’s Collective @IndigenousWome4 on Twitter
• Indian Country Today (ICT)
• NDN Collective
• An Irritable Metis, by Chris La Tray’s Substack newsletter
• I’m also looking forward to the book Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook (2023, MIT Press) by my friend and co-conspirator Dori Tunstall, PhD, Dean of Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD)

Readings about Queer Indigenous Feminisms from The Red Nation movement.

Finding Good Examples

I also keep a file of Territory Acknowledgements that reflect what (looks to me like) active, deep, learning. I don’t remember how I found this, but here’s a good example for (white) organizations in the USA:

Acknowledging the Land, Building Deeper Relationships, from The Burke Museum (Seattle, WA)

Books I’ve Learned From and Recommend:

Betasamosake Simpson, Leanne. (2017). As we have always done. University of Minnesota Press.

Green, Joyce. (2017). Making Space for Indigenous Feminism, 2nd Edition, Fermwood Publishing.

Coulthard, Glen Sean. (2014). Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition, U of Minnesota Press.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall. (2015). Braiding Sweetgrass, MilkweedPress.