For people working on colonised land (I get the impression a lot of people here are from North America? But also anyone else to whom this applies), I'm wondering what the various regional norms are for land acknowledgements and any thoughts and suggestions for the choices you make when drafting one? There's a LOT of variation where I am, and I have strong opinions on some aspects of the one I do, but it's also always evolving.
Some basic questions to get started:
- If the name(s) have been anglicised, do you use the anglicised names or the names in their languages?
- What descriptors do you use for the land? (unceded, ancestral, occupied, traditional, stolen, &c.)
- Are you on treaty land and how does that affect your choices?
- Are there political tensions between local nations and how do you navigate that?
- Does your company do a version for the programme, and does that differ from the spoken one?
- What's your position on including an expression of gratitude?
- If you draft yours in consultation with your company/producer/venue, have there been conflicts and how do you navigate that?
Mine as it stands is:
We acknowledge that this performance is taking place on stolen land within the unceded and occupied territories of the Halq’eméylem peoples, including the Xʷməθkʷəy’əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səlil̓wətaɁɬ nations.
What's yours?
Edited to add topic tag - Maribeth