Land Acknowledgments in NeoPagan Rituals: Perspectives from Ohlone Territory

We invite you to engage with your community about how the ideas presented here can transform your community and your practice. A land acknowledgment is just the first step of imagining and co-creating a better world where the lands, waters, animals, and human beings can thrive.
From Abel R. Gomez, Claire Chuck Bohman, and Corrina Gould.

Leia em Português (BR) aqui.

A land acknowledgment is a formal acknowledgment of the Indigenous peoples on whose land one has gathered. In the lands now called Canada and Australia, it is standard practice in academic, political, and community spaces to begin important events, meetings, and other gatherings in this way. This is increasingly common across what is now called the United States. Various Neo-Pagan communities in the U.S. are among the groups that are increasingly including land acknowledgment as part of the opening of rituals and other important events. While doing a land acknowledgment does not end the ongoing violence of colonialism that Indigenous peoples experience, it can be a first step working towards solidarity with the Indigenous peoples on whose land your community resides.

Why do a land acknowledgment?

Wherever one goes in the Americas, Australia, or Aoteroa (New Zealand), you are on the home of Indigenous peoples. These lands are rooted in deep histories of Indigenous stewardship and habitation for generations. With the coming of European settlement came the violent, and ongoing theft of Indigenous lands. This process is often described as settler colonialism. Maile Arvin, Eve Tuck, and Angie Morill offer a useful definition: “Settler colonialism is a persistent social and political formation in which newcomers/colonizers/settlers come to a place, claim it as their own, and do whatever it takes to disappear the Indigenous peoples that are there.” As they describe it, settler colonialism set in motion of host of systems including the imposition of white supremacy, and patriarchy, gender binaries, and compulsory heterosexuality, and various forms of dominance to control, regulate, and annihilate Indigenous communities. All of these systems are ultimately tied to a desire to control and exploit the land. Because the Americas, Australia, and Aoteroa (New Zealand), are still governed by colonial powers, the structures of settler colonialism remain. This is why Indigenous movements often call for change beyond racial justice or civil rights, but the restoration of ancestral lands to Indigenous stewardship.

While settler colonialism takes certain patterns, it’s also important to understand the way it looks in particular contexts. In the traditional territory of the Ohlone peoples, the San Francisco and Monterey areas, colonialism has taken shape in three waves. With the arrival of permanent European settlers in 1770, came the enslavement of Ohlone and other California Indigenous peoples in the Catholic California mission system. These missions transformed gender relations, religion, landscapes, local economies, political alliances, and cultural traditions, and brought deadly diseases to Ohlone peoples. With the secularization of the California missions in 1834, Ohlone peoples remained largely landless. Many were forced to work on ranches owned by Mexican families. California statehood in 1850 brought yet another wave of violence, legalizing Indigenous slavery through “apprenticeship acts," along with various forms of sexual, physical, and psychological terror waged against California Indigenous peoples.

The legacy of violence continues today through more overt methods like the disproportionately high rates of violence and murder of Indigenous women and Indigenous trans and two spirit people. It also continues through a refusal on the part of the federal government to confer recognition as Indigenous communities and through more covert methods like the erasure of Native people in educational settings and the common place language referring to them in the past. This is even sometimes done in well intended land acknowledgments (i.e. “The first people of this land were Ohlone and they walked these shores before the legacy of colonization wiped them out.”) and sometimes more insidious ways like “The Ohlone people used to use this herb for coughs and colds.” Notice how both of these ways of talking about Ohlone people imply that they are no longer here. Despite these waves of violence, attempts at genocide and erasure, Ohlone people are still here. Stripped of land and federal recognition status, they are renewing their cultures, defending sacred sites, and actively working to create a better world the generations to come.

What does it mean to live and pray on lands that have experienced such profound violence? As Pagans, many of us feel a deep connection to the living landscape. We mark the cycles of the earth, leave offerings to spirits of place, marvel at the intricacy of nature as a central Mystery of our spiritual practice. And yet, the lands that many of us reside on are accessible to us as a direct result of ongoing violence against Indigenous peoples, and in many parts of the U.S., because of the enslaved labor of African peoples. A land acknowledgment is about a recognition and a reckoning of these facts. It is an honoring of the First Peoples on whose lands we are gathered and, for many of us, a reminder that we are a guest on someone’s homeland. When done well, it is also a call to action to co-create world beyond exploitation in which lands are restored to Indigenous stewardship.

Indigenous perspective

In a recent workshop on land acknowledgments, Oakland-based Ohlone activist Corrina Gould (Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Sogorea Te Land Trust) offered the following insights. The full recording is available here. We quote at length to highlight the depth of her perspective:

“Today we go across to many different territories whenever we get in our car or on a plane or on a bus, and never acknowledge the thousands of ancestors that were there and whose territory we’re on because we have no relationship. Land acknowledgment must begin with a relationship with the people on whose land you are on. We can say words. Many universities right now, UC System and other places are looking for the words. ‘Give me the words that I can say at the beginning of each meeting, at the beginning of each graduation.’ Corporations, ‘tell us the words that we’re supposed to say to acknowledge your ancestors.’ But are those corporations or universities or community centers doing work with the original people of the lands? And that’s where it comes for me, the deep meaning, is to really acknowledge that you’re on someone else’s homeland.
When I talk to fourth graders I say, ‘When you go to best friend’s house, how do you behave yourself?’ And they’ll say, ‘Well, we say thank you and please. We don’t break people’s stuff. We ask. We don’t rummage through the refrigerator.’ Right? That’s things that as adults we teach our children and grandchildren. But as adults, do we do the same thing when we come to someone’s territory? Because you’re in someone else’s home. Do we continue to say ‘thank you and please’? Do we not break things? Do we take care of things like they’re our own or better?
And so, land acknowledgment comes with all those things as well. So, I think we’ve grown in leaps and bounds over the last 20 years, when nobody knew us at all, that people are coming to us, looking to us for guidance about what those words could be. And I think the next step I’m looking for is, how do we now live in reciprocity with one another on our homelands? No one is going home. This is becoming other folks’ home as well. We want to be good hosts. And we need good guests. And so, when I look at land acknowledgment today, I want to say, ‘Yes, I want to create those words.’ I want us to remember the genocide that happened on these lands. I want us to remember how people are now coming to our lands looking for a home. I want us to remember that we, as human beings, need to see each other as human beings again.”

Things to consider

Research: Who are the Indigenous peoples on whose lands you reside? How is their name pronounced? What is the Indigenous name of the place you live and how is the name spoken? Native land is a good starting place. Look in several sources. In some areas, there are multiple tribes, nations, and/or communities. Learn about these different communities, their current struggles, and respectful ways you can plug in. The internet is a good way to start to learn about current struggles, but the best way is through relationship. Find local actions connected with these struggles and go to public events and actions to support. At these events, be quiet and listen to the people who are sharing about their struggles. See the resource list for some suggestions about how to show up when you go to Indigenous led events.

Framing: A land acknowledgment is not the same as an honoring of the spirits of the land. It is an acknowledgment of the past, present, and future of living Indigenous peoples. These are statements of solidarity to be spoken before all else, including before a formal welcome. Doing so is an act of respect to the original caretakers of the lands on which we reside. We also recommend not framing the land acknowledgment as a request for permission if Indigenous peoples are not present to consent with the request.

Transformation: Land acknowledgments are deeply political. They bring to bear that the U.S. remains a site of ongoing violence and Indigenous dispossession. What does it mean to you and your circle to begin to acknowledge this history and current struggle in your magical practice? How might considering the history of dispossession transform the ways you and your community practice ritual? How does it change your relationship to the land you are on? Take time to reflect as a community on these questions. Consider the ways that this magic moves in your heart and your community.

Building relationships: Part of the ways land acknowledgments are transformational is that it requires our communities to understand Indigenous peoples in the present tense. This can move us to understand current issues facing the Indigenous communities on whose lands we live and working in solidarity to support their movements. Creating partnerships can look many ways, but part of it looks like showing up when asked and respectfully following their lead in community organizing work. Building relationships takes time. Part of the way that colonial thinking impacts many of us who are not Native is by teaching that relationships can be built quickly and are easily disposable. Show up and keep showing up. Also, be mindful that terms like “witch,” “pagan,” and “magic” do not always translate well into Indigenous languages and cultures, so we invite you to be conscious about the language that you use to talk about your practices and your community.

Finding the right words: As Corrina’s words suggest, finding the right words are not nearly as important as recognizing the Indigenous histories and working towards building respectful relationships. But the words are important. After doing research and respectfully participating in events with the local community, you may wish to experiment with wording. We agreed that this is a good example in part because it has three key dimensions, 1) Acknowledgment of the people with historical connections with the land 2) Acknowledges them in a way that doesn’t continue to erase them 3) Acknowledges a commitment to ongoing solidarity. Below is one example:

“We are gathered on the unceded land of the Ramaytush Ohlone, neighbored by the Muwekma Ohlone, Costanoan-Esselen, Rumsen, Mutsun, and Confederated Villages of Lisjan Ohlone peoples. We acknowledge their elders, both past and present, as well as future generations… This acknowledgment [comes with] a commitment to the process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism and the disregard of the original Peoples of this place we call San Francisco.”
-San Francisco Arts Commission, Continuous Thread Exhibition

These were just a handful of things to think about regarding what a land acknowledgment means. There are a number of ways to do a land acknowledgment and many communities are exploring how that looks in their own region. We invite you to engage with your community about how the ideas presented here can transform your community and your practice. A land acknowledgment is just the first step of imagining and co-creating a better world where the lands, waters, animals, and human beings can thrive.

*Special thanks to Kanyon Sayers-Roods/Kanyon Konsulting, LLC for recording the land acknowledgment workshop quoted in this article.