Is It Time to Acknowledge That Land Acknowledgements are not enough ?

Ernie says land acknowledgements go along with a political apology. He recalls Prime Minister Harper delivering an emotional apology for residential schools. One year later he says, Harper stated there was no colonialism in Canada, which was a slap in the face to indigenous people.

Unlike this political apology, Ernie hopes that land acknowledgements will be accompanied by education and not be just a hollow gesture. He says it’s important to define who indigenous people are and consider the content, without getting mired down in the words. Ernie also says land acknowledgements are not historical statements, because indigenous people are still stewards of the land.

Ernie felt jaded about the sincerity of land acknowledgements until he read Burnaby School District’s land acknowledgement. In it, they state that whoever says the land acknowledgement is making a pledge to be a land steward as well. Ernie challenges the youth he works with to think about the meaning behind what they are saying.

When communities invite respected members of the Nation whose territory they are on to speak, then the land acknowledgement becomes a welcome to the territory. Ernie however has been given the honour and right by Chief Larrabee to do land acknowledgements on behalf of the Qayqayt Nation. The land base was completely stolen from the Qayqayt Nation, illustrating the importance of a land acknowledgement.

There is a disconnect between Truth and Reconciliation and land acknowledgement – there are no calls to action for ‘land back’. Ernie says there is recognition that the lands are now shared between indigenous and non-indigenous people but the land-back connection still needs to be made and we need to move ahead by looking to other times when genocides happened (eg. Germany has plaques acknowledging the Holocaust). Ernie says once we look at the hard truths, then land acknowledgements will start to have meaning.