Notes on a Land Acknowledgment
The Hidden Stories project is co-located at the University of Toronto (Ontario), and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (New Jersey). In lieu of an institutional land acknowledgment, the Hidden Stories project directs you to resources discussing the impact of colonization on the Indigenous people and communities of Turtle Island (North America), which include the Seneca, Wendat, and Anishinaabe peoples, especially the Mississaugas of the Credit, and Lunaapeew (Lenape people), on whose traditional lands the project sits.
Please visit the resources on the University of Toronto Misssissauga’s Office of Indigenous Initiatives site, as well as Indigenous U of T, which explore the question, ‘Why Do We Acknowledge The Land?’ These provide resources on the Indigenous History of Tkaronto, including a Guide to Acknowledging First Peoples & Traditional Territory and the Final Report of the Steering Committee for the University of Toronto Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. To learn about the homelands (Lunaapahkiing) of the Lunaapeew, in and around what is today Princeton, New Jersey, visit Resources for the Lunaape / Delaware Living Land Acknowledgement. The late historian Mark Peters, the late language-keeper Karen Mosko, and Ian McCallum, all members of Munsee-Delaware Nation, contributed to the site.
Institutional land acknowledgements can be problematic for Indigenous communities as well as institutions on whose land they are situated. The Hidden Stories project shares this essay discussing the challenges present in using land acknowledgements: “Beyond Land Acknowledgment in Settler Institutions” by Theresa Stewart-Ambo and K. Wayne Yang.