On Land Acknowledgements and More Discomfiture

Published about 1 month ago • 4 min read

20 July 2025

Land Acknowledgements & Inadequacies

Reader,

I've been puzzling more than a bit over indigenous land acknowledgements as I move to position myself as an ally for global and marginalized voices and narratives, a necessary part of the Waywords mission and part of the Reader's Manifesto.

So let's be real for a minute. Waywords Studio is in Michigan, the state itself an Ojibwe word for "great lake." Hundreds of towns, lakes, and Detroit-made automobiles are similarly named. I have taught in two Michigan schools that had troubling mascots based upon ignorance of tribal culture. The history and politics which followed the French and Indian War and Pontiac's Rebellion in the mid-1700s, the 1807 Treaty of Detroit, and the numerous smaller treaties and treatments of regional tribes here, especially the Anishinaabe nations that form the The Council of The Three Fires---Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewadomi (Potawatomi)---are far too complicated (and tragic) to detail in this small newsletter; but importantly, that political history is hardly over, and just because most legal holdings here in southeast Michigan have seen the displacement of indigenous power, injustices around the 12 tribes that remain in Michigan continue.

Why Are We Talking About This Now?

And yes, while I was in east Canada we came across several instances where that country worked to find equity and justice for its history (and several instances where it fails to), and I've since read a few books on the topic, one from Canadian advocate Rose LeMay, Ally is a Verb. And while I've been thinking about this for some time, seeing Canada's successes and failures (also much to detail there) brought this issue to the foreground for me and for Waywords.

But, significantly, what use a "land acknowledgement?" We can see the main issue, I'm sure: mere words, tokenism politics, virtue-signaling after the fact, and the like. Many such statements do only this. I was inspired (somewhat) by the far more aggressive position of The University of Michigan whose acknowledgement says, in part:

Here we acknowledge a difference in the understanding of terms and power between these settler and Indigenous signatories. And we note that our university stands, like almost all property in the United States, on lands obtained, generally in unconscionable ways, from indigenous peoples who continue to be unconscionably treated.

(https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=283427&p=8234907)

But Is Acknowledgement Sufficient?

Well, conscience is a powerful topic in these days of rolling injustices here and abroad. And alone it seems insufficient even to motivate change. The end of UM's acknowledgement says:

We hope that through scholarship and pedagogy, we can create a future in which understanding of the past supports present-day justice balanced by care and compassion.

Pedagogy sounds like a fit. But I'll partially address an answer in these words by Chelsea Vowel:

"If we think of territorial acknowledgements as sites of potential disruption, they can be transformative acts that to some extent undo Indigenous erasure. I believe this is true as long as these acknowledgements discomfit both those speaking and hearing the words. "

(https://apihtawikosisan.com/2016/09/beyond-territorial-acknowledgments/)

Discomfiture is a definite fit (re: Literary Nomads). And so I move to speak into my own spaces of discomfiture and those who read and hear: for the Anishinaabe and other tribes here in Michigan and for those outside our state, but also for other marginalized and global voices which I might reach and support where and how I may.

What this will look like I could never guess right now, but it will rely of course upon what I learn from those I meet---and this compels me to meet. I can see right away, though, several spaces where I can add voice:

Begin with planning a land acknowledgement which leans on my conscious motivation for doing it, upon history, on carefully strategizing my role in both the pedagogy and action so as to de-center myself, and on making measurable commitments to moving forward in action.
Re-visiting an ongoing project of fiction where a major character has retreated from her own tribal history in the interest of assimilation.
Underscoring the need for more works of literature in reviews and in Literary Nomads beyond the Western canon, and to always note the canonical works' roles in the large context of history.
Reporting on my own learnings and failings openly.

None of this replaces what I have been doing, but re-shapes it some, as it should. I have long been monitoring my coverage of marginalized literatures, but this is the next step of that process.

And You?

What do you think of the practice of Land Acknowledgements? Do you think I am misunderstanding something? Have I left out any ideas I should be considering? What strategies would you recommend? I would love to hear from you on this!

Write me!

Some Things Are Better Unheard

Another moment from an earlier character study I did on little Esmond Ring, who hears far too much.