Commentary
Land acknowledgments are recited at plays and concerts, sporting events, city council meetings, and Remembrance Day ceremonies. Nowhere, though, are they as thick on the ground as at universities.
“Saint Mary’s University acknowledges that the university is located on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the ‘Treaties of Peace and Friendship,’ which Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources…” So begins one land acknowledge officially approved for use at my university.
Sometimes, a professor or student will open a session or event by speaking a land acknowledgment just because he wants to. That’s bad enough. But frequently our administrators require that one be spoken. For instance, no one at Saint Mary’s may defend their master’s thesis unless the provenance of the land on which we’ve gathered has been acknowledged….