Use of Land Acknowledgements A Space for Inclusivity By: Tamer Oxendine I would like to welcome you to a space and place that has been created to practice inclusivity for all individuals. To acknowledge that the sight on which I live, work and have received my education is also considered the traditional lands of Original Inhabitant tribes of North Carolina as the tribes that reside here today. They include the Coharie, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Meherrin, Occaneechi, Sappony, and the Waccamaw-Sioun. I would like to Land acknowledge that Indigenous peoples are alive and thriving today throughout our region, as well as world-wide. Please take a moment to think about the traumas, Acknowledgement displacement, forced relocations, and other colonized practices that have taken place against Indigenous peoples of the past and present. Land Acknowledgements Definition Acknowledgement of history Inclusivity Original Pre Contact Indigenous Tribes Current Tribes of North Carolina Who can benefit from these practices? • Higher Education Institutions • Indigenous faculty/staff/students • Indigenous communities (within region or state) • Non-Indigenous communities How is this practice benifitical? • Reciprocal relationships • Inclusive space • Intersectionality Example • We would like to welcome you to a space and place that has been created to practice inclusivity for all individuals. We ( Insert name of Higher Education Institution) would like to acknowledge that the sight on which our school is located, is also considered the traditional lands of the ( Insert Indigenous Tribes name whose land the school resides on). We take the time to pay our respects to the Indigenous peoples who occupy our regions and communities. (List Indigenous Tribes within region or state). We acknowledge that Indigenous peoples are alive and thriving today throughout our region, as well as world-wide. Please take a moment to think about the traumas, displacement, and other colonized practices that have taken place against Indigenous peoples of the past and present. Protocol for Creating Land Acknowledgement Step 1: Decide who will be involved in the creation of the Land Acknowledgment. I When beginning to construct ideas of a Land Step 2: Begin doing research on the original Indigenous territories that were and are located in the same region Acknowledgment, organizations will need to and state. understand the importance of the step they are Step 3: Make initial contact with Indigenous tribes. taking. Beginning to construct working relationships Step 4: Work to create an Elders Conference. and reciprocity with Indigenous tribes help to foster Step 5: Contract tribal Elders: inclusivity and respect. Step 6: Host Elders Conference: Step 7: Meet with the creation team and begin construction of Land Acknowledgement. .