Land Acknowledgment
Why We Remember
A statement about Land Acknowledgements
By Luis Ortega, Founder & Director
Dear, Storytellers -
How do you engage in the practice of remembering?
Consider all the ways you remember–-on your own, with your friends, colleagues, family, and communities. We remember by engaging in conversations, rituals, and gatherings that involve bringing to the present a specific memory. We remember by telling stories over dinner, through national and local holidays, by returning to places we’ve visited (physically or spiritually), by celebrating birthdays, and by gathering in places of worship. The act of remembering is how we, individually and collectively, create memory. And memory has a voice, positionality, agenda, and a way of influencing what and whom we recognize.
The first time I read Joy Harjo’s poem, Remember, it had a profound impact on me. The poem guided me through a journey to understand the act of remembering is not only a bridge to the past––it also shapes how we interact with our present and how we envision our future.
This is why today and every day, at Storytellers for Change we celebrate and recognize the resilience, power, and joy of Indigenous peoples. I also remember their displacement, the trauma and injustice, and the history and unfolding impact of colonization.
This is why indigenous land acknowledgments matter to us.
It’s a practice through which we acknowledge Indigenous people and their connection to their traditional territories, an act of solidarity and respect, and a process through which we historize and heal our memory. Furthermore, it’s also a form of recognizing the current context of Native communities, their present work, struggles, resilience, power, and leadership.
This is why whenever I start a meeting, workshop, or event, in-person or virtual, I will start by acknowledging the original stewards of the land where I reside, the Duwamish and Coast Salish people. I will also acknowledge my ancestral homeland, Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), and the Mexica people, and whenever I travel, I do research ahead of time so I can acknowledge the land and Indigenous people of the place I’m visiting. In addition, we have also included Land Acknowledgments on our website and many of our learning materials because we see them as important channels to continue to raise awareness and invite action.
However, I must admit that for many years I hesitated to offer a land acknowledgment. “What if I get it wrong?” I would ask myself.
Even though I found the practice deeply valuable, I felt that my voice could take space away from Indigenous communities. Furthermore, I must also admit that there were many times when I just simply didn’t remember or even consider for a moment the Indigenous people on whose land I was standing. This is yet another clear reminder of how the practice of remembering, what we hold in our memory, influences what we notice, who we see, and don’t see.
I have to express a deep sense of gratitude for two dear friends, Tracy Rector (Choctaw/Seminole), Co-Founder of Longhouse Media, and Russell Brooks (south Cheyenne), the Executive Director of Red Eagle Soaring, who taught me to understand land acknowledgments with more clarity and why and how they are also a conduit for relationship building, informed action, and healing. Each of them has also reminded me that all of us have a responsibility to take action.
Here are a few of the resources that have supported my learning about Land Acknowledgements:
This Native-led organization has created a website that can help you identify the indigenous land where you are. If you don’t know already, start by learning about whose land you live. If you travel, learn whose land you’ll be visiting.
This webinar, led by Carly Bad Heart Bull (Bdewakantunwan Dakota and Muskogee Creek), Native Nations Activities Manager at the Bush Foundation, provides a great overview of Land Acknowledgements and offers important insights into how to create an indigenous land acknowledgment.
This toolkit, created by the Meztli Project, is a powerful guide for how to practice indigenous land acknowledgments. This document makes for a great introduction and offers practical tips and actions you can bring to your organization or share with event/program organizers. You may have noticed we also reference this toolkit in the land acknowledgment we included on our website.
This guide from the Native Governance Center offers a powerful summary of an Indigenous land acknowledgment panel they co-hosted with the Lower Phalen Creek Project on Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2019 (October 14, 2019). The guide offers tips for creating a land acknowledgment statement.
Download the #HonorNativeLand guide here. This resource offers “context about the practice of acknowledgment, gives step-by-step instructions for how to begin wherever you are and provides tips for moving beyond acknowledgment into action.”
Thunderbirds Raised Her are three sisters from the Lummi Nation, Katherine Jefferson, Billie Lynn Kennedy J, and Dani Kili Kennedy Jefferson. Listen to their wisdom and voices in their award-winning music video, “WE,” a powerful anthem inspired by the strength and commitment of the Indigenous Water Protectors who laid it all on the line at Standing Rock.
As a closing reflection, I want to leave you with words of wisdom from another dear friend, Carly Bad Heart Bull, Executive Director of the Native Ways Federation. In 2019, she offered the following remarks while delivering a convocation at Carleton College titled “A Lasting Legacy: Acknowledging Dakota Resiliency in Mni Sota.”
“Just remember that names matter and stories matter. My story matters, your story matters, and the stories and names that we collectively honor and remember through having these conversations are what’s going to change or shift this dominant narrative, in order to ensure that the stories of all people of this land including the Dakota people, other indigenous people are heard, respected, and celebrated.”
We move forward and towards healing by remembering with love, solidarity, accountability, commitment, and respect for our sacred interconnectedness.
In Community,
Luis Ortega
Director & Founder