Meaningful Land Acknowledgement and Reconciliation in Canada

What is Reconciliation in Canada?

Blog: Meaningful land acknowledgement ? what does reconciliation mean to you?

Draw on lectures and course materials, including extra resources (to be provided, see cuLearn), to write a *meaningful* land acknowledgement as if located in Ottawa (Carleton) or elsewhere in Canada. How do you relate to the land and to the Indigenous people of the land (add a 100-200 word footnote on the Indigenous people of the land)? Why? What does reconciliation mean to you?

Include five self-calls to action to which you commit personally, explain why, and describe how they connect / contribute to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action (2015).

1.Research your paper:

Look into what "reconciliation" means, from whose perspective, how it plays out or it doesn’t in real life, and why

Understand what "land acknowledgements" are, from whose perspective "meaningful" is considered, how & why they are practised, or why there may be resistance to this practice (or to a certain format of the practice) and by whom

Look into your own social positionality / subjectivity (e.g. what group identities intersect in your social self ? citizen, (im)migrant, settler, racialized, gendered, classed etc.), to become aware of the differences in group/social identities that influence our knowledge and thus shape perceptions and lived realities.

Being aware of your positionality enriches your understanding of a certain social issue, including a practice such as land acknowledgements and a process such as reconciliation.

What areas / notions / theories / concepts in this course relate to the above? see colonization, decolonization, settler colonialism, violence, intersectionality, space, place- making and meaning making, connection, belonging and community, national identity, public memory, collective identities, diversity/multiculturalism, everyday encounters, borders and borderlands etc.

2.Intro (1/4 page): Intro to the practice of land acknowledgements within the context of reconciliation + map out your paper (what you will cover in the paper).

3.Part 1 (3/4 page): Write a *meaningful* land acknowledgement as if located in Ottawa (Carleton) or elsewhere in Canada.

When you write it, consider the following questions to guide your acknowledgement:

Who are the Indigenous people of the land and what is their history in relation to the land?

When mentioning the people, it is mandatory to include a 150-200 word footnote on the Indigenous people of the land and the link to the resources that you consulted when you researched this aspect (hint: look for sources that are produced BY the respective Indigenous people)

The History of Indigenous People of the Land and Their Relation with the Crown

What is the relation between the respective Indigenous people / territory and the Crown (i.e. Canadian state)?

Is the territory on which you stand / chose to acknowledge (un)ceded? What does that mean?

How do you relate to the land and to the Indigenous people of the land?

• In what capacity are you related to the land? How has that capacity / identity fostered or prevented a connection to the Indigenous people of the land so far? Why?
• How do you choose to position yourself in relation to the Indigenous people of the land going forward?

[you can include more elaborate notes on all of the above aspects in foot notes]

Part 2 (1 1⁄2 page): What does reconciliation mean to you? Include five self-calls to action to which you commit personally, explain why, and describe how they connect / contribute to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action

The idea with the self-calls to action is that you would think of what *you* as individuals could contribute towards reconciliation.

The official Calls to Action put forward by the Truth and Reconciliation Commmision (TRC) may sound like they have nothing to do with individuals and everything to do with institutions / Canadian state. Therefore, people may think that they cannot individually contribute (or that it's not their responsibility).

So, I want to challenge you to think of what specific actions you yourselves, as individuals, can take to bring your contribution to a social context that makes those official Calls to Action more likely to be achieved.

This is because our personal actions and the way we think form a certain public culture, which matters just as much as the official actions by the Canadian state (i.e. it is public culture that decides who is included and who is excluded in everyday life).

In doing so, you need to first browse through those official TRC Calls to Action, get an idea of what they are and of the areas in public life that they relate to (e.g. education, legal system etc.). Your research for the paper should have informed you by that point about why the TRC was struck and why those official Calls to Action were put forward (see matters of systemic discrimination, colonialism).

Then you need to think of 5 actions (your own, hence called "self-calls to action") that you personally commit to, and explain why you commit to those personal actions and how those personal actions relate to the ideas expressed in some of those official Calls to Action.

An analysis that contextualizes those 5 self-calls to action and draws on the questions listed in the Guidelines doc:

What is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission?

Reconciliation in Canada is in response to what and why? [See matters not only of colonization, but also of settler colonialism (what's the difference? What are the consequences?)]

What are the current lived experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada? Who are the Indigenous peoples in Canada?

What responsibility does the Canadian state and population at large have? [What has been accomplished so far and what remains to be done?]

How do YOU understand reconciliation and how are you personally willing to contribute and why? [Be aware of your positionality here!