Why Are Land Acknowledgments Important and How Do They Impact Student Belonging?

Creating a learning environment that is safe and produces feelings of belonging for students who identify as Native or Indigenous is important not only for those students, but also for universities to reflect on their role in the continuation of colonization (Native Governance Center, 2022). For too long, Native peoples’ voices have been pushed aside, when they should be valued in teaching and education. Discussing land acknowledgements with your class and offering additional resources for Native and non-Native students alike can shed more light on the injustices still going on today as well as start a conversation involving many diverse kinds of people on campus. Continuing to learn from Native knowledge holders is significant when addressing classrooms as it illuminates and recognizes the importance of positionality, “an assertion that all knowledge is partial knowledge and arises from a web of cultural values, beliefs, experiences, and social positions” (Sensoy and DiAngelo). Practicing viewing knowledge through the notion of positionality is key (Sensoy and DiAngelo), and focusing on Native voices when discussing matters relational to them can aid in alleviating unequal power dynamics between Indigenous students and those in the classroom who are not Indigenous (Stewart Ambo and Yang, 2021). Furthermore, even if there are not any Indigenous students present in the classroom, such truths should be recognized not only for when an Indigenous student inevitably does arrive or enroll in the course, but for the native nations whose land our university stands on.

The University of Iowa’s Native American Council talks further on this question.