Wikidata:Property proposal/land acknowledgement
land acknowledgement
editReturn to Wikidata:Property proposal/Generic
| Description | acknowledgement of indigenous or native people whose ancestors lived at a location |
|---|---|
| Represents | land acknowledgement (Q96200400) |
| Data type | Item |
| Domain | item, geographic location (Q2221906) |
| Allowed values | building (Q41176), organization (Q43229), university (Q3918), monument (Q4989906) |
| Example 1 | University of Virginia (Q213439) → Monacan people (Q3513658) [1] |
| Example 2 | University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (Q2000129) → Native Hawaiians (Q1283606) [2] |
| Example 3 | University of Washington (Q219563) → Coast Salish peoples (Q1755154) [3] |
| Source | en:Land acknowledgement |
| Planned use | plan to present this concept at WikiConference North America in October 2025 |
| Number of IDs in source | probably 100s, no attempt at a comprehensive list or even a list of any kind identified |
| Expected completeness | always incomplete (Q21873886) |
| Wikidata project | WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America (Q10440055) (notified on Wikidata talk page) |
Motivation
editThere is a popular trend in the United States to make "land acknowledgements" at public meetings. Universities do this especially, because they are sensitive to remembering history. Other organizations which may do this include cultural centers, museums, and inaugurations of buildings. A typical land acknowledgement occurs at the beginning of a meeting. After people have convened, the host of the meeting will make a statement acknowledging the colonial nature of cities, and how colonists displaced the native people. The host will state the names of the tribes or indigenous people who lived in the place before colonists arrived. Then there is some statement of well wishing for the descendants of those people, and for recognizing the history of the native people.
As examples I listed some universities, because universities document their land acknowledgements more frequently than other kinds of organizations. Land acknowledgements could apply to any place, like an entire city or region, but here in Wikidata, I propose that we track any organization which makes a land acknowledgement for itself, and that the target be the people to whom their acknowledgement is directed. I think there will clear data here when our model for land acknowledgement requires a citation from the organization making the claim. Bluerasberry (talk) 19:25, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
Discussion
edit
Notified participants of WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America Bluerasberry (talk) 19:33, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
- I love this proposal!
- I was actually just thinking today about how we could use the <ancestral home> property to connect traditional Indigenous territories like Mi'kma'ki to their associated Indigenous peoples (Mi'kmaq). We could potentially make items for traditional territories based on the territories listed in Native-Land.ca, and then use those territory items for land acknowledgements in some way? Just a thought. GaryMan1968 (talk) 19:57, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
- @GaryMan1968: ancestral home (P66) is for self-identification (with third party citation, of course) of individuals and people to their ancestors. The land acknowledgement concept is a statement that organizations choose to make. In the case of land acknowledgements, it could be the case that the indigenous people do not want the acknowledgement, and that the statement benefits the current occupants more than the previous native occupants. The native-land.ca website would be what a contemporary organization used to determine the ancestral owners of the land which they now occupy. But the "land acknowledgement" concept is a voluntary declaration which communicates the politics of the organization making it, rather than giving information about native people who formerly lived there. The default is that organizations make no land acknowledgement, and have no stated opinion about previous land occupants. In the absence of an organization's acknowledgement, there can be no "land acknowledgement", as these have to be cited to an organizational statement. Perhaps there also should be a Wikidata property for what you are describing, like "indigenous people of this location", which could be applied to cities and regions. Bluerasberry (talk) 21:57, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
Support Not just in the USA - I've definitely seen this for Canadian institutions and I think I've seen this for Australia/New Zealand too. ArthurPSmith (talk) 19:06, 3 December 2024 (UTC)- I'm really not sure about this path and urge caution. There is a difference between a land acknowledgement and traditional territories. There are mistakes with the native land website, and yes, most land acknowledgements are not "approved" by the Nations or peoples it is meant to acknowledge. These statements often change. I do wish we had a way to cite traditional territories, although this is a very, very complex topic. I would be supportive if it was clear that these land acknowledgements are official statements frequently coming from corporations or organization and are not to be conflated with traditional territories. There are massive issues with the modelling of Indigenous lands, peoples, and cultures in Wikidata.Smallison (talk) 16:15, 5 December 2024 (UTC)