308C - More or Less?: Planning’s Responsibilities in Land Acknowledgments

October 07, 2020

1:10PM - 1:25PM

This presentation is based on the findings of my major research project as a graduate student at York University, which explored the purpose of land acknowledgments, what responsibilities are implied in the statements, and how planners can enact these responsibilities in their practice. I also examined the colonial roots of land use and community planning as well as the treaties that cover the land I live on (Toronto/Treaty 13). I reference this dark history in the title of this presentation; many of the land claims and surrenders written between 1680-1903 often defined boundaries of land claims being “more or less” than a certain distance, obscuring any specificity which would assist Indigenous communities aiming to reclaim ancestral territory and allowing settlers to exploit unstable agreements for their benefit. In learning this history, I found myself more deeply engaging with land acknowledgments as a settler and have felt a shift in my understanding of what my role as a planner can be in a society that regularly presents land acknowledgments.
 
Learning objectives: I would like to discuss how planners can more deeply engage with the history presented in land acknowledgments through historical research, interacting with and thinking about their urban and rural surroundings differently, and by considering their own relationship to the land as land-based practitioners.
 

Speakers