Reflecting on Indigenous Lands Acknowledgement
By James Fitzgerald, Doctoral Candidate, York University
Comments made on May 2 and May 3, 2017
For me, land acknowledgements are an opportunity to think through responsibilities, complicities, and potential solidarities with Indigenous nations.
Day One Questions:
I am going to offer some questions for reflection throughout the day:
First, where are universities investing their funds, who is donating to these spaces, and what impact is this corporatization having on Indigenous front lines? On the other side, what are the potential opportunities for sharing the myriad material, intellectual, and financial resources academics have access to with Indigenous land defenders and community front lines? Second, what solidarities and collaborations have existed or have not existed in the past between movements you are involved in and Indigenous struggles for nationhood? How can these presences or tensions inform current organizing?
Day Two Questions:
Yesterday, I offered some questions for reflection throughout the day. Today, I am going to offer some further questions for reflection. First, who is doing the emotional, physical, and mental work of decolonization? Second, where are the common points of agreement between Indigenous nations and activists? Third, what happens when there are disagreements? How are activists, organisers, and those working in solidarity proposing to work through productive antagonisms, refusals, and disagreements?
