Practice of Land Acknowledgements

Facilitator: Annie Hung

In our university context, we witness a variety of land acknowledgements. As teachers, presenters, speakers, and in other contexts, we may even be the ones giving the land acknowledgement. How might we engage in this practice meaningfully, and how might we navigate the difficulties or troubling aspects of the practice? In a guided table discussion, we can share with each other how we have managed this practice so far as well as together, imagine new ways to engage in land acknowledgement.

Ethics/Time

Facilitator: Ayush Mukherjee

Indigenous nations have prioritized certain ethical virtues: stewardship, truth, courage among others. It is tempting to look at these are fixed, static virtues, as if all participants in these ethical relations (I, land, world) have always existed. Instead, we might want to introduce a sense of time within these virtues, asking primarily what it means to do ethics for our future. How should educators educate for stewardship for the future, truth for the future, courage for the future? How does it affect our questions, methods and broader research ethics?