I came across news that a startup I had never heard about failed and became insolvent. I went to its “About Us” page and there I see this:
And? Are you gonna do anything about that?
Is this a Canadian thing?
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It’s bullshit wherever it happens.
It’s a fucked up way to acknowledge that wrongdoing was done, acknowledge the vast socio-economic privilege gained from it, disavow themselves of any of that wrongdoing (because only wealth is inherited, not responsibility or culpability for the deeds done to earn that wealth), and thus refuse to actually do anything practical about it.
We do the same in Australia. We even say it at the start of meetings sometimes.
“we acknowledge that we are sitting on stolen land … Anyways lets continue fracking!”
Aye, it can feel a bit strange. It can help to keep the fact of settlerism on the agenda, though. It is often merely a performance unfortunately.
I kind of like land acknowledgments, because they raise the contradictions of colonialism. Landback is the goal, but I think acknowledgements are an essential stepping stone.
They are potentially completely useless, but do open up the opportunity to talk about colonialism if you have the knowledge, and pass a persuasion check.
I think they do more than just present an opportunity to talk - they present an opportunity for people to think about colonialism, when normally it flies under the radar completely. That’s important too. Though we definitely have to take advantage of the opportunity to push their thinking further, towards more radical directions like landback and indigenous liberation struggle.
