[Uosenate] Want to read the Land Acknowledgement?

[William Harbaugh]

Hi Spike, I’d be happy to read a few paragraphs from this Atlantic article<https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/against-land-acknowledgements-native-american/620820/> on land acknowledgements, eg:


Some people argue that land acknowledgments are “gestures of respect.” I’m not sure one can show respect while also being indifferent to a people’s existence. The statements are a counterfeit version of respect. Teen Vogue put it well<https://www.teenvogue.com/story/indigenous-land-acknowledgement-explained>, if unintentionally: “Land acknowledgment is an easy way to show honor and respect to the indigenous people.” A great deal of nonsense about identity politics could be avoided by studying this line, and realizing that respect shown the “easy way” is just as cheap as it sounds. Real respect occurs only when accompanied by time, work, or something else of value. Learning basic facts about a particular tribe might be a start.

Most of these acknowledgments are considered (by the speakers, anyway) moral acts, because they bear witness to crimes perpetrated against Native peoples and call, usually implicitly, for redress. If you enjoy moral exhibitionism, to say nothing of moral onanism, land acknowledgments in their current form will leave you pleasured for years to come.



On Dec 7, 2021, at 9:47 AM, Senate President <senatepres at uoregon.edu<mailto:senatepres at uoregon.edu>> wrote:

Dear Senators,

We begin every Senate meeting by having someone read the land acknowledgment, which recognizes that the University of Oregon is located on land stolen from its original inhabitants, the Kalapooya. You can read a bit more here<https://senate.uoregon.edu/senates-land-acknowledgment> about the form and meaning of the acknowledgment.

I am writing this message to request any senator who is interested in reading the land acknowledgment to send me (cc Betina) a quick message to that effect, so we can schedule in who will read is for the remaining 8 Senate meetings this year.

Thank you in advance!
Spike

P.S. For those with anxiety regarding pronunciation of Tribal names, for this year only we have a special offer of advance coaching from a professor of Linguistics who actually works with Native languages of the Americas…

Spike Gildea
Professor of Linguistics
President of the University Senate, 2021-2022


_______________________________________________
uosenate mailing list
uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu<mailto:uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>
https://lists.uoregon.edu/mailman/listinfo/uosenate


Bill Harbaugh
UO Economics
harbaugh at uoregon.edu<mailto:harbaugh at uoregon.edu>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.uoregon.edu/pipermail/uosenate/attachments/20211208/91463c26/attachment.html>