Beyond Land Acknowledgements: Real Collaboration with Tribes & Tribal Leaders
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Tribal land acknowledgments are rapidly growing in popularity among institutions and organizations, taking the form of opening statements in meetings and conferences, signage, or website messages. One might ask why land acknowledgments are being made in a growing number of settings, including the museum. Acknowledgment is a simple, powerful way of showing respect and is intended as a step toward correcting the practices that erase or freeze Indigenous people’s history and culture while inviting and honoring the truth. However, the land acknowledgment is also at risk of ending where it began, perhaps well-conceived and received, but merely a symbolic gesture with little to no follow-through of engagement and real change. While land acknowledgements are well-meaning, they are no substitute for substantive and ongoing tribal relationships and understandings of tribal land claims.
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Beyond Land Acknowledgements: Real Collaboration with Tribes & Tribal Leaders
- 1. LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND PROTOCOLS REBECCA DOBKINS, PH.D. HALLIE FORD MUSEUM OF ART, WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY, SALEM, OR
- 2. KEY QUESTIONS Why have a land acknowledgement? Who is the audience? How can a protocol for action build upon a land acknowledgement? What are some ingredients of successful long- term tribal-museum collaborations?
- 3. Why have a land acknowledgement?
- 4. Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread, 2004 Pataka Museum, Aotearoa (New Zealand)
- 6. Indigenous Land and Territorial Acknowledgements for Institutions
- 8. How can a protocol for action build upon—or replace—a land acknowledgement?
- 9. ECOTRUST Call to Action ECOTRUST (Portland, Oregon) Lisa J. Watt (Seneca), Director of Indigenous Leadership Program https://ecotrust.org/call-to-action-for- indigenous-communities/ Call to Action for Indigenous Communities While land acknowledgements are intended to be respectful, they oversimplify complex tribal histories and fail to recognize the ongoing impacts of colonization that tribal communities continue to live with to this day. In place of a land acknowledgement, Ecotrust staff—and especially the Native staff—are asking you to support Indigenous communities by taking action. [Lists 8 specific actions]
- 10. Protocols for Action What would it mean to partner a land acknowledgement with action in your institution? Example of University of Alberta: https://www.ualberta.ca/centre-for-teaching-and- learning/teaching-support/indigenization/land- acknowledgements.html
- 11. Coupling words with institutional power Going beyond “inclusion” or “acknowledgement” to transformational change Raises key questions about how decisions are made and resources are controlled or shared
- 12. What are ingredients of successful long-term tribal-museum collaborations?
- 15. Building Relationships with contemporary weavers Minerva Soucie (Paiute) Bud Lane (Siletz) Pat Courtney Gold (Warm Springs)
- 16. Collaboration with Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association
- 17. George and Colleen Hoyt Endowed Fund for Native American Weaving Arts Alfred “Bud” Lane III (Siletz) 2001 Basket cap Hazel, bear grass, maidenhair fern
- 18. The Art of Ceremony: Regalia of Native Oregon 2007-2009 NEA American Masterpieces Project Venues: HFMA, OR Historical Society Tamástslikt Cultural Institute The Museum at Warm Springs
- 19. Tamástslikt Cultural Institute staff Randall Melton works with HFMA David Andersen on exhibition installation, 2008
- 20. Exhibition led to book Foreword by Bud Lane Afterword by Roberta Conner Forthcoming, University of Washington Press, October 2022
- 21. Contemporary Native Artists Exhibition & Publication Programs Rick Bartow, Wiyot MY EYE exhibition & book 2002
- 22. Lillian Pitt, Warm Springs Spirits Keep Whistling Me Home Exhibition 2004
- 23. Marie Watt, Seneca Lodge exhibition and book, 2012
- 24. CROW’S SHADOW INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS, Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon
- 26. Welcome Figure to be dedicated— today! Bobby Mercier (Grand Ronde) designed and carved a Welcome Figure for the HFMA that will serve as a permanent presence, welcoming and reminding visitors and community members that we are on Kalapuyan Land.
- 27. Lessons Relationship-building is a long-term process for both individuals and institutions Secure long-term institutional commitments (protocols, endowments, regular programming, positions) Institutionalize broad responsibility for relationship-building
- 28. Thank you! Thank you to colleagues Roberta “Bobbie” Conner and Jennifer Karson Engum, Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, David Lewis, Oregon State University, and Elizabeth Woody, The Museum at Warm Springs Thank you to the Western Museums Association Rebecca Dobkins, Curator and Professor, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University rdobkins@willamette.edu
Editor's Notes
- Will try to answer these from my own institution
- My first experience with land acknowledgments & protocols was in NZ; more of an indigenous protocol of one iwi asking to enter the territory of another. Protocol-rich; included calling of ancestors, introductions, songs, sharing. Not a checklist. Indigenous-to-indigenous, nation-to-nation process.
- Elements of truth (acknowledgement), justice (upholding treaty rights, addressing historical wrongs), change (transformation of power relations)