EXPLAINER: Land acknowledgments begins conversation on local Indigenous history

Both UHCL and the Pearland satellite campus sit on the land of Akokisa, Karankawa, Coachuiltecan, and Atakapa-Ishak peoples. The Coachuiltecans span across south Texas and the Tāp Pīlam Coahuiltecan Nation’s headquarters is in San Antonio.  

What are ‘Land Acknowledgments?’

A land acknowledgment, also called a territorial acknowledgment, is a formal statement recognizing the relationship between Indigenous nations and the land the statement is made upon. Traditionally shared at the start of an event or ceremony, people sometimes express acknowledgments with a plaque or page on a website. Advocates of this practice see this as the first step in reconciliation and as a way to honor the spiritual relationship Indigenous communities have with their ancestral land.

Land acknowledgments continue as a cultural practice of Indigenous nations. Outside of these communities, the practice is becoming more common with U.S. cultural institutions like universities, museums, libraries and performance spaces now acknowledge the land they occupy. However, in countries like Canada, New Zealand and Australia, people regularly interact with these statements. In Canada, for example, there are many public events like sporting events, performances and guest lectures, etc., starting with a land acknowledgment as part of the opening statements.

The increased visibility and representation of Indigenous stories in media have exposed many new audiences to the practice. At the 2020 Academy Awards, Māori and New Zealand director Taika Waititi included a land acknowledgment when introducing a segment. Minutes before that, he won the Oscar for Best-Adapted Screenplay for “Jojo Rabbit.” He stated, “I dedicate this to all the Indigenous kids of the world who want to do art and dance and write stories—we are the original storytellers.” 

TWEET: At the 2021 Academy Awards pre-show, the President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences David Rubin read a land acknowledgment.

UHCL and regional higher education

UHCL has yet to host a land acknowledgment ceremony or a continued acknowledgment through official university channels. However, there are faculty and student groups on campus that have started these discussions. Since forming in 2019, Latinx and Indigenous Students Taking Actions (LISTA) organization start its meetings with a land acknowledgment. This began under the leadership of LISTA officers Erica Solis and Arturo Perez with the support of LLAS faculty Desdamona Rios, professor of social psychology, and Christina Cedillo, professor of writing and rhetoric.

After potential members experience a land acknowledgment for the first time at a LISTA meeting, current LISTA president Jacq Garcia, arts and design major says they come to the next meetings after researching the topic. 

“These conversations are a good stepping stone,” Garcia said. “A lot of people just don’t know what it means to do a land acknowledgment. Some people think it is like a prayer or something, but that is not necessarily what it is.”

Outside of LISTA, the Student Government Association has begun to look into land acknowledgments and some UHCL faculty adopt them in various forms in their own practice. These forms of land acknowledgment exist in places like their syllabus and curriculum.

On the first day of class, Cedillo tells her students what her research is, where UHCL is located and where her ancestry derives from, but does not include a land acknowledgment in her syllabus. She then “encourage[s] them to talk about where their ancestors are from.”  She sees this approach “as a way of inviting students to bring where they come from into the classroom.” 

“Colonization has really affected BIPOC in certain ways that I think a lot of people just don’t know where they are from or who they are through their family,” said Cedillo. “People have been encouraged to strive for whiteness and in order to do that you have to eliminate your cultural history.” 

In addition to people of color, those of European and/or Jewish ancestry have a history of changing their names to assimilate into mainstream/white society.

“Being a Latinx person of Indigenous descent, I have had to do a relearning of a lot of my own culture that has been lost over time,” she said. “I come from a family where people were deliberately encouraged to indigeneity leave behind and to try and assimilate as much as possible.” 

The personal and professional mentors that helped Cedillo unlearn are Indigenous scholars from different nations. Cedillo stated that Native scholars will begin conferences and discussions with a land acknowledgment “as a way of acknowledging whose land they are one.” This practice goes back to pre-colonial America.

At the local level, the UH Main Campus Faculty Senate released a general acknowledgment in Spring 2020. The 2018 American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Convention began panels with land acknowledgments. Leading the ACPA 2018 convention, Melissa Jacob from Ohio State University wrote, “land is not just merely space that bodies occupy; it is a depository of culture, story, history and tradition” to those who questioned the need for these statements.

Outside of public institutions, private organizations and businesses in the Houston area have also started implementing land acknowledgments. The book publisher Six Foot Press and the Harris County Law Library both include land acknowledges and resources to learn more about those Indigenous communities. After opening a new building, the Houston Mennonite Church shared the statement displayed on a placard inside. 

“We are renovating our permanent exhibit on Native American cultures and will incorporate our own land acknowledgment,” said Dirk Van Tuerenhout, curator of anthropology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS.) 

In a virtual event discussing HMNS’s John P. McGovern Hall of the Americas renovations, Tuerenhout described the guiding principles encompass a sentiment that Indigenous people are still here.

How to make a land acknowledgment

There is no template for a land acknowledgment. However, several organizations have provided “dos” and “don’ts.” Here are some key components gathered from the Native Governance Center, New York University’s LandAcknowledgements.org and the U.S. Department of Arts & Culture:

“Being aware that the land on which we live was never ceded by the Native people is important,” Tuerenhout said. 

“They were forcefully removed from it,” Tuerenhout said. “That is a historical reality and injustice. It is something we all need to learn more about and acknowledge. By making this acknowledgment, we, as a society, make the Native populations less invisible, more recognized. We acknowledge that they are very much ‘still here.’ A land acknowledgment is a first step in helping to grow awareness.”

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