WEBVTT - What are land acknowledgments? 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.319 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.319 and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, And this is 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:21.759 stuff you should know. That's right. This is about Land 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:27.560 Acknowledgements and Libya, one of our awesome writers, helped us 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:30.280 put this together. And I was just noticing the other 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.879 day when we're uh, when we're thinking about topics and 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:38.639 who should tackle them, it feels like everyone has I mean, 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:42.040 everyone can do everything, but like some feel like this 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:44.760 should be so and so because it just feels like 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.120 a fit and a new Libya this would be a 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:50.120 great fit for her, and she did a killer job 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:55.680 because this is a tough one. Land Acknowledgements is a 0:00:55.800 --> 0:01:00.640 uh controversial thing, mainly because of the ukeyness in which 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.160 it's carried out In most cases, Boy, you just said 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:08.160 a mouthful friend. Yeah, so Land Acknowledgements. If you don't 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.160 know what we're talking about, um, if you've possibly ever 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:16.720 been to a Montreal Canadians game in character, I just 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.600 I show up at a concert at a large venue 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:24.119 in Canada. I'm going to see uh uh, the reunion 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:29.120 of of of Poison and Everyboddy cc deville and I 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:35.080 met the the Enormo Dome and someone that looks like 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:39.880 you walks out with a microphone before the show and go, okay, 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.759 we acknowledge that this poison show is about to take 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:50.000 place on First Nation's Land. Who were excellent stewards of 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:57.640 this land and on with the show, perfect bad example. Yes, 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:00.520 that was supposed to be bad. That wasn't just me. Yeah, 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.440 and that's the last time we're gonna laugh in this episode. Disagree. 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:07.000 We always say that, and then there's something funny that 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.320 comes up. But it is a very it's a serious 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:13.160 topic because it's something that hasn't been figured out. It's 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.120 still very contemporary, it's still very raw. It rouses a 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.079 lot of emotions. It's a um one of the one 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.919 of those spear points of the spear of like the 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.120 culture wars in America and from what I gathered Canada 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:29.200 as well in Australia, New Zealand probably yeah um. But 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.800 the whole point of the land acknowledgement is to basically say, like, hey, 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:38.120 this land was probably stolen, It was probably taken from 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.720 broken treaty. The people who originally lived here are probably 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.840 forced off the land. Um, there's still in terrible shape 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.239 in a lot of ways today compared to their white 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:52.760 or black or Latin X or Asian um counterparts in 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.760 this country. Um. And you know, we should probably do 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.399 something about that. At the very least, we should acknowledge 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.040 it and like keep them from getting erased from history. 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:04.880 And it's in its ideal form, that's what a land 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.760 acknowledgement is. But the problem is is like there's a 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.400 lot of people out there, especially who are probably right 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:13.320 of center, who don't want to hear that kind of stuff. 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.160 They don't like that a's snowflakes stuff. There are people 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.480 left of center who are like that is the most 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.919 vapid thing I've ever heard. It makes no difference whatsoever. 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.480 And the fact that you're even saying it makes things 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.440 worse than if you didn't say anything at all, Like 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.880 go back and go just go away. Um. And there's 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.320 the people who are actually doing these land acknowledgements who 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:39.440 very frequently are like corporate hr reps you know who 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.960 who are who are doing it to like, you know, 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:46.880 whitewash their company's activities elsewhere. Um, it's just a mixed bag. 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.680 But yet the reason why it's important is because there's 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.880 some kernel there that's that that is important, that that 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:58.160 makes sense, that makes it worthwhile and worth exploring and 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.120 not just tearing down, not just going ahead and doing 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.520 you know, wrote but actually like using it as a 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.560 jumping off point for like, you know, kind of re 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:12.000 exploring and revisiting history and then hopefully, um, creating redress 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:16.040 to that history. Yeah. Boy, well said it was off 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:20.239 the cuff. You mean you wrote it down in your cuff. Yeah, 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.200 and read it. Yes, and I'm wearing my very nice 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.440 little or fanany cufflinks. It's very nice. She was staring 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.800 back at me admiringly the whole time. Alright, So we 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:31.680 should dive into a little bit of the history here, 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:37.680 because if you go to Australia, um, you know, thousands 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.599 of years ago, you would find something called welcome to 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.680 country ceremony from indigenous people, which was sort of a 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:50.320 protocol diplomatic protocol where a nation or a tribe would 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:54.080 visit another person's land and they would the people that 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.240 hosted them would have a welcome to country ceremony. It 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.760 might have been a poem or a saw long. There 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.520 might have been a smoking ceremony. You know what I'm saying. 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:09.240 And in the mid nineteen seventies, white Australians started getting 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.960 into this idea in this practice. And it was that 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.520 year in nineteen seventy six, there was a group of 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:19.880 Maori and Cook Islander dancers who were coming. They were 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:24.520 invited to come to a performance, a multicultural dance performance 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:28.039 in Perth at the International Arts Festival there and they said, 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.520 you know what, We're not gonna come unless we are 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:34.640 welcomed by the traditional owners of this land. Uh. In 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.400 nineteen seventy six they said this, And it was a 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:41.440 performer named Richard Wally UH and a member of And boy, 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.520 I think I'm gonna do my best with these pronunciations. 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.960 I really really tried this time and looked everything up 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:54.440 because part of you know, the problem with a bad 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:58.680 land acknowledgment is some dumb white person mispronouncing the name 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:03.719 of a tribe or indigenous person like this. UH. Do 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.600 you want to give a go on this one? You? 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.440 This is your section, all right? I And you know 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.360 the troublesome part about the internet, as you can find 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:17.400 different pronunciations. But what I landed on was was in 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.880 Western Australia, these were the UH younger people, very nice. 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:25.320 Chuck spelled n y o O n g a R. 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.640 So they all agreed that this should happen. They got 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.240 permission from the elders and he welcomed the visitors and 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.799 this was Richard Wally uh in that language and sang 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.839 a song from their people. Yeah. And Richard Wally was 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.200 a member of that that those people, so he you know, 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.360 there was a there was a legitimacy to him performing this, 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.320 this welcome to country ceremony, welcoming these dancers who very 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.119 rightfully and very traditionally said we're we can't really step 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:57.640 foot in Perth unless we're welcomed, like that's just custom. Um. 0:06:57.680 --> 0:06:59.960 And so it's very interesting to me that you can 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:04.000 races phenomenon back to one arts festival in Perth in 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:08.120 nine six and this one incident, this one happening, and 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.080 it just kind of spread from there. Um. It didn't 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.760 like spread like wildfire or anything like that. It was 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.239 pretty sedate. Um, it was wrapped up in like midnight 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:19.920 oil stuff. Throughout the eighties, you know, that kind of 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.400 radical politics, I guess you could say, um to where 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.640 probably people on the first left were the ones who 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:29.360 were carrying out welcome to Country ceremonies are having those 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.920 UM performed at their events. And then in the nineties, 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:37.040 UM Australia really started to kind of like self reflected 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:44.160 its history of its treatment of Aboriginal UM Australians and UM. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.680 One of the things that kind of came out of 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.160 that that self reflection was this this idea that Welcome 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.800 to Country ceremonies were like a really great way of 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.800 honoring this heritage and UM kind of bringing Aboriginal culture 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.640 back into Australian society where it had been so you know, 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.400 zealously pushed out for so long. Yeah, and this sort 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.000 of morphed over, I guess between the seventies and the 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:12.480 nineties in Australia to where the Welcome UH to country 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:16.960 was in some cases replaced by a land acknowledgement or 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:21.440 an acknowledgement of country, which would and this was in 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.560 the beginning days, would be a short speech, like we said, 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:29.239 it would recognize the traditional landowners that were local UH. 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:33.440 And in the eighties and nineties it was sometimes an 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:37.120 Indigenous person doing this, sometimes a non Indigenous person doing this, 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:44.000 and eventually the National Indigenous Australians Agency UH came up 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:50.040 with UM basically some guidelines, right. Yeah, they basically said, 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.520 like that whole welcome to country thing, like, do not 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.880 do that unless you're an indigenous person. And if you're 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.040 an indigenous person, you should only be doing it if 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.599 it's you know, your people's land that this event is 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:04.559 being held on. If you're non indigenous or you're indigenous 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:06.360 but not a member of the land, what you'd be 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.079 doing is an acknowledgement of country, which is just basically 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.319 like what you would call the land acknowledgement today, where 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.079 you don't have to be indigenous, you just basically acknowledging 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:19.679 that the land, um, you know, was originally owned, inhabited, 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:25.360 trod upon, used, cared for by UH, an indigenous group 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.160 or if you want to really just kind of you know, 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.160 miss the whole thing to say indigenous people in general. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.040 UH in Canada is where it took off in North 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.280 America first. And this is not that long ago. This 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:44.000 was about what seven years ago in Canada's Truth and 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:49.360 Reconciliation Commission released a big report that year basically addressing 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.600 the residential schools and the removal and we should do 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.280 at episode about this for sure, the removal of indigenous 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.160 children from their families and basically said this was a 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:02.640 cultural genesis. And this is when Justin Trudeau was coming 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:07.280 into office and he was really big on you know, 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:11.160 and during the campaign for sure on reconciliation with Indigenous 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.920 people is a big part of his platform and something 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:16.959 he wanted to get accomplished in office. Yeah. And so 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.480 like just like in Australia, the idea of land acknowledgements 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:25.439 seemed to be a really good low hanging fruit um 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:30.880 as far as kind of reintroducing the presence of indigenous 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:36.800 First Nation people into Canadian society um and and you know, 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:40.160 not ignoring them, not erasing them history actually you know, 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.160 acknowledging them and in the past that that this that 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:47.400 took place here um or there in Canada. Um. But 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.920 the thing is that it also kind of like underscores 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:54.760 just how easy it is, which can be problematic as 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.360 we'll see too. Yeah for sure. Uh, you know, it 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.760 spread from Canada to the US. It trickled down south 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:07.880 in the late uh two thousand teens is how you 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.480 would say that, like two thousand seventeen, two thousand eighteen, 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.600 Uh seen the US Department of Arts and Culture, which 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:17.480 sounds like a government agency. But it's not. It's an 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:21.400 independent group. They published a guide to land acknowledgements for 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:27.640 the United States. Uh. The group's founder, Adam Horowitz, came 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:29.840 out and said that it was downloaded more than seven 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:34.120 thousand times. And uh, he said, one lonely beast ib 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:39.160 all by myself. I got nobody very nice and very 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.000 bad dad joke. I thought it was a great joke. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:43.920 I didn't even think it was dad. I don't think 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.080 you can make a dad joke about the beast boys 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:51.199 unless you had on your cuff. What was it? Can you? 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:53.800 Can you say your version the King ad Rock? That 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:55.560 is my name, and I know the fly spot where 0:11:55.559 --> 0:12:01.280 they got the champagne. Uh. I taught my daughter a 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:04.800 line that was not something that a kid should say 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.160 when she was like four, and Emily was so mad 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:09.959 at me. She was so afraid she was going to 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.240 say it in kindergarten. And I think she's forgotten him 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.520 by now. Uh. I'll tell you off the air. Okay, 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.400 sorry everybody for that tease. But now in the United 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.280 States you will find cities like Denver, Phoenix in Portlands 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.920 that have adopted these guidelines. The National Park Service has 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:30.440 NASA has you might have heard it at the Academy 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.800 Awards or the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or the Democratic 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:38.679 National Convention, not the Republican National Convention. Uh. And so 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.200 this is a thing that is kind of brand new. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:44.600 If you look at a timeline over the past three 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:50.840 or four years, that America is treading into very gingerly, gingerly, 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.960 awkwardly keeps running into the doorframe, all sorts of different stuff. 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.360 And I think before we kind of go back into uh, 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.400 you know, why you would even do this and how 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:02.040 you would do it, I feel like we should take 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:24.720 a commercial break, let's do it. So. Um, there are 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.160 a number of recency to to use the land acknowledgement. 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:33.480 And again this is usually what opens your meeting, your conference. Um, 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:35.720 you know, like you could see it if you're in 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:41.080 a beautiful like conference hall in like the woods, in 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.439 a kind of a beautiful remote area. I can totally 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:46.719 see that. But I've also heard of these things being 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.920 used on like conference calls and just at regular meetings 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.600 in the city. UM. Just it's so it can get 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.760 kind of weird. But the overall point of it is 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.680 that if you are um, if you're not an indigenous person, 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:06.720 and you're reading a land acknowledgement, Supposedly you're thanking the 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:11.319 the people of the who used to live there um 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:16.880 in pre colonial days, um for being stewards of the land. Um. 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.600 You probably also are, in some way, shape or form, 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:25.520 whether subtly or overtly, also acknowledging that violence is why 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:30.000 they don't live there anymore, um and violenced by the 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:34.000 um white colonists and and and or the federal government. 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.560 And then also, if you really want to make your 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:42.720 land acknowledgement pop, you can say, and this is how 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:46.720 how we can build connections to these people who have 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.440 been harmed and are still harmed um. And it can 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.640 get even more nuanced than deeper than that. Yeah. And 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.960 you know it's a mouthful to get up before your 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:03.280 your work conference and talk about people being raped and 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.440 murdered and displaced and treaties broken, and the fact that 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:14.080 the oppression of Indigenous Americans is ongoing and the problem 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:18.080 is far from solve, Like that's that's gonna put a 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.000 damper on whatever awesome energy you're trying to start with. 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:26.440 So it's a sales conference, Yeah, So it's people are 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:28.200 trying to figure out the best way to do that, 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:33.120 and sometimes, as we'll learn, it is a a shorter 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:37.120 acknowledgement where they will then point people to, hey, our 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.840 company has this website or a page on our site 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:45.720 properly so, uh, where you can really dive in and 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:47.880 learn about what we can do and this is what 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.760 our own company is doing, including hiring programs or training 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:55.360 programs with the people who once lived here. Uh. That 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:59.080 is the ideal, is that it's a you know there 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.200 there's actually something being done and it's not just words 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:06.680 being spoken. So you know, they're still trying to figure 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.040 this out. Who knows where it will end up, but 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:11.680 it's been a little clumsy so far, like you said, 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.920 bumping into doorways. And there are also other, like, um, 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:18.480 other reasons why people do land acknowledgements rather than just 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.400 kind of like make their their company look you know 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:26.520 with it or sympathetic or I was not going to 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.080 but yes you could use that word. One of them 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:33.440 is to to just show solidarity and support for the 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.960 idea of truth and reconciliation. To just say, like, oh, 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:39.520 you wanted to pump all the biffs and muffies up 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.240 to go sell a bunch of mufflers. Well, t s 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.040 because I'm going to suck the air out of this 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:48.520 room with this clunky Land acknowledgement, and it's gonna make 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.080 them think a lot more than this, you know, little 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:53.200 page that you guys have on your website that five 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:55.520 people are going to visit in the history of the internet, 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:57.920 you know. Um, So I think there are some people 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.000 who say, like, yeah, that's exactly what's supposed to be 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.760 is to kind of suck suck people into it. UM. 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.960 Also another big thing is to kind of um begin 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:12.560 to repair relationships between UM, American society and the indigenous 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:14.800 cultures that have kind of been pushed out of American 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:19.520 society and continue to be kept there. UM acknowledgement of 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:23.160 the fact that like the American government that a lot 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:27.040 of really terrible stuff to Indigenous people in addition to 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.280 enslave people in the past, and that just by talking 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.160 about it in random, weird places makes people think about it. 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:36.800 It keeps it from being a race. It actually does 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.240 the opposite of keeping it from being a racist kind 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.680 of scribbles it almost like graffiti into everyday life of people. UM. 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.119 A good Land acknowledgement could do that. So there's a 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.199 lot of different reasons to do it beyond what I 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.720 think most people who are opposed to land acknowledgements accused 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:57.080 people doing that of which is morally performing. It's more 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.200 like exhibitionism is what a lot of people chat owing 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:02.359 you with, and it's it's not it's not supposed to 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.960 be at least that's right. Uh So, I guess we 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:07.920 could talk a little bit about how you go about 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.440 doing this to begin with the first thing that there's 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.800 something called the Native Governance Center, which is a nonprofit 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:20.000 Native led nonprofit that has resources for Native nations. And 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:22.119 you know it's a good place to start because they 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:24.480 will say, hey, if you go to do this, the 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:26.360 first thing you should do is take a good hard 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.480 look in the mirror as a company, and why are 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.960 you doing this to begin with? And if your reason 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.600 is just too rattle off something so you appear to 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:39.520 be uh, forward thinking and acknowledging something and it's sort 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:41.280 of a blithe way, then that's not a good reason 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:45.920 to do it. After that, after you have made made 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.800 that right within yourself as a company and you want 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.640 to press forward, then you have to do some research 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:56.000 because you can't just open Wikipedia and say, oh this, uh, 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.240 the apple headquarters is built on the land of these people, 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:01.280 because it says so right here in the sentence. So 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:03.120 let me just type up a quick little thing that 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.399 that that that the and we're done. Um. It is 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:11.040 very it can be very challenging to find who the 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:15.840 indigenous peoples of the land are because they moved around 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.760 a lot and because they were forcibly removed a lot. Uh, 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.040 they sometimes traveled with the waters and the river ways, 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.160 and it's it's not as easy as you might think. 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:29.440 So you have to really put in the work to 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.320 to really find this out. And as we'll see, one 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:36.560 of the controversies is putting that onus, on the indigenous 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.000 peoples and saying, well, hey, let's just go find some 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.520 of them and let them do this research for us. 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:43.399 And now we're not gonna pay him or anything like that, 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:44.680 but like, we want to get it right, and they 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:46.480 want to get it right right, so let's do it 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.600 for us, right, Yeah, I saw that. Compared to so 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.560 like a land acknowledgement is basically like a receipt that 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:56.080 a thief gives you after stealing your stuff, but then 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.760 having an indigenous group actually create the land acknowledgement for 0:19:59.880 --> 0:20:03.480 you is having somebody that you've just stolen from write 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:08.080 the receipt to themselves on your behalf. That's ultimately what 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:12.640 you're doing. Yeah. So um uh, there are actually like 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.200 um websites, there's apps that have been set up to 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:20.399 to help make land acknowledgement research a little easier. UM. 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:23.080 I found one. You can text your ZIP code to 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.040 nine oh seven three one two five eight five. That's 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:29.240 not a rick roll or spam. I tried it myself 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:33.679 and it texts you back, um a name of like 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.560 the group that you are, um that lived in your area. 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:41.439 That seems like the Simpsons, doesn't it kind of a 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:47.359 little bit if yes, But if you just um, if you, 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:49.639 like you said, you just take that copy and paste 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:52.720 it into your land acknowledgement and that's that. Then you've 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.600 just done something that's worse than not doing a land 0:20:55.640 --> 0:21:00.000 acknowledgement at all, which is an incompetent inept um thought 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:04.679 lists land acknowledgement. There's there's that's literally worse than not 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:07.800 doing a land acknowledgement. Yeah. So, after you've done your 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:11.480 research and you have really found out the true origins 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.560 of the people of that space that you're in, uh, 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:17.680 you should reach out to them. Uh, And like I said, 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:20.280 not just dash off your own a few lines on 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.080 on your computer, but actually get in touch with them 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:25.520 and say, hey, um, I don't want you to do 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:29.080 the work for me, but can we work together on this? 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:31.199 And how how would how would you like this to 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:35.280 go down? How much detail would you like? And it 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.840 can be as if and you know, maybe follow their lead, 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.679 uh for a change and see what they want. And 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.119 they said that that's a really good second step. Yeah. 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:46.200 And you've also you might not be able to fit 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:48.600 as much detail as you want to or certainly everything 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:52.000 you turn up in your research if you do decent research. 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:56.320 Because again Land acknowledgements in following kind of that tradition 0:21:56.359 --> 0:22:00.199 of welcome to country um ceremonies. They go at the 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:03.280 beginning of an event. And because these are such random events, 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:07.560 from a corporate retreat to a Canadians hockey game, like 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:13.920 it's it's bolted onto the front. There's no easy way 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:15.960 to put it in there except to just do it. 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.439 And so to take up a lot of space at 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:21.800 the beginning of a Canadians game or a corporate retreat 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:25.320 or whatever, explaining like the detailed history and like inner 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:28.879 tribal relations between you know, the people who lived on 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:31.280 this land before and then their their dealings with the 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.399 United States government and like their removal, and what are 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:36.280 they doing today? What can we do to help them? 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.760 Like that's that's not what land acknowledgements are meant to be. 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:45.119 But ultimately, for a satisfying, like decent good land acknowledgement, 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:47.080 you have to figure out how to distill that down 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:50.680 into just a few sentences. It's almost like writing poetry, 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:57.000 you know, dude, retirement job for us? I guess we 0:22:57.040 --> 0:23:02.200 should start up the land acknowledgers dot com and at 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:05.560 the beginning of every single thing, Josh and Chuck show 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:08.840 up and do a short stuff right, just say give 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:11.560 us fifteen minutes and we will speak of all the 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:15.359 atrocities and bring this room down to its lowest point 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:20.359 and then say thanks everybody. Uh and Microsoft right us 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:23.920 a big fat check. That's right, We'll say, short stuff out. 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:26.840 Short stuff is out, and so are we. Man. That 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:29.040 could be a pretty good gig for us. Yeah, I 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:31.840 think you're right, Chuck. We actually I'm I was wondering 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:33.440 what we were going to do in retirement, but now 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:35.480 I not do that. I have a real sense of 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:39.119 security now, thank you. So one of the things you're 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:41.520 probably going to run into though, to Chuck is you 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:44.480 were saying like it's it's not as straightforward, is oh, 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:46.040 this is the people who used to live here. I'm 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:48.160 just gonna copy and paste. You have to do some research. 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:50.240 And when you're doing research, you're going to find out 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:52.959 that there might be like more than one group that 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:56.280 claims land to this, So that kind of opens up 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:58.399 a whole cuddle of worms too while you're making this, 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:00.919 because the whole point of this is to acknowledge the 0:24:00.960 --> 0:24:04.080 people who whose land this was. And if you suddenly 0:24:04.119 --> 0:24:06.000 have two groups who are saying this is my land, no, 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:09.520 this is my land, you're about your non indigenous person 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:12.400