land acknowledgment

noun

variants or land acknowledgement

plural land acknowledgments or land acknowledgements

: a usually brief statement (such as one made at a public gathering) that recognizes the surrounding land as the ancestral, traditional, or contemporary homeland of one or more Indigenous peoples

An increasing number of institutions across the country have started making verbal land acknowledgments to the Aboriginal groups who traditionally occupied the territory.

—Maija Kappler

For the first time in its 94-year history, the 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade featured a land acknowledgement and blessing to honor the Wampanoag and Lenape people.

—Intertribal Life

When people ask for guidance in making land acknowledgments, we suggest reaching out directly to local Indigenous communities and to Native Nations forcibly removed from the area in the past to ask how they want to be recognized.

—National Museum of the American Indian

This is the core issue with land acknowledgments: they aren't enough. And while no single action can speak to all historical sins, this one in particular lacks nuance. At its worst, a land acknowledgment may make someone feel like they've done their part, and that Native history—and past and present identity—fit into a neat little box.

—Len Necefer

Examples of land acknowledgment in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Local institutions like the San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco Arts Commission and UCSF have all adopted similar land acknowledgments in recent years. —Shawna Chen, Axios, 11 Oct. 2024

The spot incorporates stock footage and artificial intelligence to directly comment on how such campaigns and institutional messaging deploy superficial signifiers of progress and diversity (think land acknowledgments that feel more tacked-on than actually conducive of change). —Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 25 Nov. 2024

At its best, a land acknowledgment is a first step. —Dr. Len Necefer, Outside Online, 4 Oct. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

2014, in the meaning defined above