Candace Jack, of the Westbank First Nations.

Image Credit: Grizzli Winery

Land acknowledgements have become common practice in the Okanagan.

You hear them at nearly any common gathering in an official space: "We acknowledge we are on the unceded lands of the Syilx People."

But does it mean anything? Is it enough to simply say some words? For some First Nations people, the answer is no.

Jordan Coble, Westbank First Nation Council, told iNFOnews.ca that land acknowledgements are generally a positive thing. But the good intentions behind them need to translate into real work that supports First Nation communities. 

“I understand and respect and appreciate that folks are using land acknowledgements,” he said. “But what's most important (are) the actions that follow.”

“It's not about just saying, 'I acknowledge this is land that was acquired in unhealthy ways, disrespectful ways' and then just go about your day as if that means nothing,” he said. “I think we've gone long enough with just accepting the status quo… and ignoring Indigenous issues.”

To some extent, these acknowledgements have accustomed residents to the idea that the land is unceded or, in other words, taken illegally.

“They're just so common that they just become kind of diluted,” Coble said. “Especially, if there's no actions that follow it up, no work being done to actually empower Indigenous communities, or Indigenous peoples to be the… rightful owners of their own property.”

On some occasions, "land welcomes" may be a more appropriate alternative practice for Indigenous peoples, Coble explained.

“There has to be a distinguishment between a land acknowledgement and a land welcome,” he said. “(A land welcome is) basically from the perspective of the people whose land you're on. As opposed to, 'I'm a visitor on these lands', I'm from these lands. My ancestors are from these lands and on behalf of our nation we welcome you to go about your business here.”

On top of this, the long and uncomfortable history of settlement in British Columbia needs to be more widely discussed.

“First and foremost, there definitely needs to be way more education as to what it means to be on someone else's land and understand the history as to how land was acquired. But, moreso, how it's affected our relationships today in a societal sense,” Coble said.

Colonialism and settlement created barriers that continue to impact First Nation peoples today, Coble explained. 

“Our ways of being was completely transformed and taken away from us when they took our lands. So, a land acknowledgement is way more than just saying, 'hey, we took this and we acknowledge that we took it and we're not going to give it back,'” he said. “It's acknowledging that there's been generations and generations of imposition of colonial rule that's affected your traditional ways of being, which are completely different than how we understand society today.”

The forced separation from the land that came with settlement has harmed communities in more ways than one, Coble said.

“Disconnection from each other, disconnection from the understanding of what it means to be a good human being, it all starts with our disconnection from the land,” he said. “As soon as we started to see it as a commodity, as a resource that needs to be capitalized upon, that needs to be harnessed and sold, as opposed to lived with and nurtured, that's the downfall of our society.”

First Nations communities generally don’t see their history accurately depicted in colonial narratives.

Coble said he recently saw a plaque dedicated to the patron saint of the Okanagan, Father Pandosy which bears no resemblance to the history and stories of the Okanagan peoples.

“Father Pandosy is not a patron saint in our view of him,” he said, “Father Pandosy was a gentleman... that had no hope in heck to survive unless it was for the Okanagan people that were kind enough to nurture him and his crew back to health and provide them with the space to be, a space to live, a space to thrive, and the knowledge to be able to do so in the Okanagan territory. They provided him with a space to even share his religious views of life.”

“By no means did we see him as a saviour,” Coble said. “We didn't need a saviour. He's the one that actually needed the saving. And so, to have that type of rhetoric just perpetuates the myth of colonization as the saving of Indigenous people and that is absolutely atrocious in my mind.”

This misunderstanding of First Nations history is something Coble has witnessed for a long time.

“It gets tiring,” he said. “After a while, when you do this work, day in, day out, and you start to find yourself to be on repeat… the story you're saying is the exact same story you shared yesterday. And it's the exact same trauma that you're reliving day in and day out. And people just want to know more about it. But they're not actually willing to do the work that patch those scars to get towards healing.”

It has been over a decade since Coble first heard a land acknowledgement. In that time, he has seen some improvements.

“There's been some movement towards creation of space, but there's no real returning of land where it's needed. It's still, ‘hey, we acknowledge we took your land and we're still going to use this land. And just because we said this acknowledgement now we have this kind of freedom to be on your land even longer’, as opposed to, ‘hey, we took your land and we're working to return what's rightfully yours.’ Those are two totally different understandings.”

“In order for this to truly transform into something amazing, there has to be a significant acknowledgement and the floodgates need to open," Coble said.

There needs to be a “sandwich approach” of grassroots First Nation movements spreading recognition and empowering the community, alongside systemic change from the governmental level, Coble said.

“Those are two major things that need to take place and it can be disheartening at times when you're working at the grassroots level, the community level, but to not be able to make the major changes that are needed in society because of provincial legislation or federal legislation.”

Despite this, Coble is optimistic for the future.

“We're going to continue to fight and continue to push and challenge the status quo,” he said. “I'm optimistic that the government will make the changes necessary so that the grassroots work that's taking place can be supported and relationships can be built that are more human relationships, more people-to-people relationships, not just government-to-government."

"You have to recognize that as human beings, we have a responsibility to look out for one another regardless of where we come from.”

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