Considering Land Acknowledgment
By Mikile Baker and Anna Haglin
Considering Land Acknowledgment explores the intent of using and speaking land acknowledgments into one’s space, particularly that of a public institution. Consisting of a conversation between two Walker Art Center educators in the Public Engagement, Learning, and Impact (PELI) team, it enters a stream of dialogue around the acknowledgment of Indigenous life, colleagues, and culture in context at the Walker, and in Minnesota.
“I’m sorry. I’m so confused. If we’re on someone else’s land, shouldn’t we do something about that?”
--Carolyn Taylor in the Baronness von Sketch Show
In 2019, the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s Baroness von Sketch Show posted a skit about the performative nature of land acknowledgments. This skit hits close to home for Walker educators who give land acknowledgments before tours. Like the comedy sketch implies, a land acknowledgment without accompanying direct action can feel hollow.
In the fall of 2023, we presented a workshop at the Art Educators of Minnesota Conference called “Acknowledgement to Action: How to live by your land acknowledgement.” We presented this workshop based on our experiences as educators on the PELI team at the Walker. We shared our process with other art educators and discussed ways to back up our land acknowledgments with meaningful action. One way we make meaning is by crafting our own, individual land acknowledgments.
Mikile Baker
First, for context, can you describe your role at the Walker?
Anna Haglin
I’m a lead educator at the Walker, which means I design art-making activities for Walker events and lead tours through the galleries. To give a tour, educators learn about the art at the Walker. Then they help visitors engage more deeply with that art by facilitating discussions and activities.
MB
What is the purpose of a land acknowledgment at an art institution, specifically at the Walker Art Center?
AH
Giving a land acknowledgment is one way I show respect for the Native American communities who thrived here before settler colonists arrived. A land acknowledgment doesn’t absolve us of guilt; rather, it is a recognition of complicity. During a panel discussion that was hosted after the Walker’s Scaffold reckoning in 2017, artists Nicholas Galanin, Ashley Holland, Candice Hopkins, and Steven Loft spoke about the frustration of constantly being asked to educate the public. Holland summarizes, “The burden [is] once again placed on Native peoples to tell those histories, to reveal their traumas."1 As a white-bodied educator, it is my responsibility to learn about history and share that knowledge with the public so that Native folks aren’t asked to do the relentless emotional labor of retelling that history.
MB
When do you give a land acknowledgment at the Walker?
AH
I give a land acknowledgment before every tour. I change the acknowledgment a bit depending on the audience. Once, an Ojibwe middle school came for a tour, and I wasn’t sure whether to give a land acknowledgment. I ultimately asked the teacher whether it was okay, and she said, “Oh, definitely! They need to hear it.”
MB
Do you use a formal, written text, or do you improvise based on key points? Why?
AH
I improvise when I give land acknowledgments. I want to stay present with the words I am speaking, and improvising helps me do that. We’re trained to use inquiry-based methods when educating at the Walker; we ask questions to engage with folks more deeply. I start that process during my land acknowledgment. I ask visitors if they know the names of the two Minnesota tribes who were displaced [Dakhóta and Ojibwe]. There’s no way to predict how an audience will respond, so there’s no need to memorize.
MB
What do you, personally, do to back up your land acknowledgment with action?
AH
The first thing I do is listen and learn. I try to learn history from multiple sources so I understand different points of view. I seek out cultural content that’s created by Native organizations and artists. This research helps me learn place names in Dakhóta language. Since the Wahpekute (a division, or “oyate,” of the Eastern Dakhóta) were the group forced out of Minneapolis, I practice pronouncing Dakhóta words and use them when I can.
I also volunteer. I love the Dream of Wild Health farm in Hugo, Minnesota, and I go there to help on the farm. I volunteer screenprint for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s March. When I have extra cash from a grant, or when I learn about an artist opportunity, I think about how I can pay a Native artist or somehow use my platform to lift others.
MB
When you give a land acknowledgment, what kinds of conversations or reactions do you get from your audience?
AH
It’s remarkable how many people don’t know what tribes originally inhabited Minnesota. I’m impressed that people are willing to be vulnerable and recognize a gap in their knowledge. That’s a great first step toward learning.
MB
What do you hope comes next, after the land acknowledgment?
AH
Honestly, I hope the next thing people do is learn more about Native artists. There are some incredible artists in the area, like Gordon Coons, Maggie Thompson, and Dyani White Hawk. If it’s hanging in the galleries, work by Native artists isn’t hard to include in tours—it’s all so good, people love spending extra time with it. Ultimately, I hope visitors take what they learn at the Walker and share it as widely as possible.
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AH
First, for context, can you describe your role at the Walker?
MB
I am the youth programs coordinator. I cofacilitate the Walker Art Center’s Teen Arts Council (WACTAC). WACTAC is a paid afterschool program for teens. I also support school and tour programs and assist in outreach efforts.
AH
When do you give a land acknowledgment at the Walker?
MB
I normally give land acknowledgments when I’m leading a tour. I make it a point to give a land acknowledgment whenever I am leading anyone through the galleries, whether it be a visiting school or the teens in WACTAC. In teen programs, when there is a big gathering that involves parental/guardian participation, I will deliver an acknowledgment prior to the event.
AH
What is the purpose of a land acknowledgment at an art institution, specifically at the Walker Art Center?
MB
The purpose of a land acknowledgment at the Walker Art Center is to acknowledge the Indigenous peoples who inhabited this land prior to the arrival of T. B. Walker. Personally, I see the Walker’s land acknowledgment as a receipt of the past, and nothing else, an attempt to acknowledge its role in the displacement and destruction of culture, language, and people. From an institutional lens, I think the land acknowledgment at the Walker is an attempt at apologizing for its past interactions with Native people that ended unfavorably.
AH
Do you use a formal, written text, or do you improvise based on key points? Why?
MB
At this moment, I struggle with the concept of land acknowledgments. What comes after the acknowledgment, when the statement ends? Are Native and Indigenous peoples in a better place after my statement is read? I struggle with the lack of closure and the lack of visible change. That said, when I craft my land acknowledgment, I want it to be intentional. Writing out my acknowledgment in advance ensures I cover the necessary aspects of it. I want to recognize the history of the land and the peoples’ connection to it, the injustice and atrocities they encountered, and recognize that Native people are still members of our communities today and that they are still entitled to reparations. For me, writing my land acknowledge helps me ingrain the content of what I’m writing in my head. The information being shared in the acknowledgment is important and deserves respect and reverence.
AH
What do you personally do to back up your land acknowledgment with action?
MB
I believe in our power as individuals to institute change. Our visions may not always align with the organizations and institutions that we work for, which can leave some feeling spiteful or uneasy. I struggled with how to move forward after learning the Walker’s history and about Scaffold. Institutional accountability is important. However, it’s a long road. Rather than sit and wait, there are ways to get involved and institute change.
The 2022–23 WACTAC cohort drafted their own land acknowledgment for their spring teen-takeover event. Wanting their statement to be more than words on a sign, they decided to create a call to action, which contained different ways to support the Native community. They provided literary resources, protest ideas, and charity organizations. This was inspiring. Seeing the teens do this led me to create a list of resources that I hand out every time I deliver a land acknowledgment. While the effort is small, I do believe that if you show people how they can educate themselves and get involved in community action, then you will encourage a small few to take part.
My mother always encouraged stewardship and being an individual for others. I enjoy volunteer work. My partner had worked with the Division of Indian Work for a project and told me that they were looking for volunteers. I became a homework-help tutor who works with the youth who take part in the Division of Indian Work’s afterschool program.
AH
What do you hope comes next, after the land acknowledgment?
MB
I would like to see the Walker Art Center entertain conversations of land repatriation. I believe Native peoples are deserving of more than an “invisible” placard on the entryway wall. The Walker has the ability to create opportunities in the form of grants, scholarships, and the showcasing of work. I believe that by creating opportunities, the Walker is taking a step in the right direction. By lending its platform to the communities it disrupted, it can begin to create a working and healing relationship with those it harmed.▪︎
Online resources for crafting land acknowledgments and taking direct action:
• Native-Land.ca: an interactive tribal and treaty map that helps you identify the Indigenous tribes whose homelands you occupy
• Lakota (Lakhóta) pronunciation guide
• Native-run news outlets:
National Native News
Native News Online
Indian Country Today
• University of Indiana Native languages dictionary with MP3 sound files
• Dakota Wicohan: Dakhóta language learning project based in MN
• Illuminative—Native Women-run cultural organization with a list of learning resources at https://illuminative.org/resources/
• Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and its Native Knowledge 360 project
• Mnisota’s Native Artist Alliance to find artist exhibitions and programming
Twin Cities area field trips
• Learning from Place: Bdote—a guided tour from the MN Humanities Center
• Minnesota History Center
• Historic Fort Snelling
• Wakan Tipi Center in 2026 (Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary)
• Hoċokata Ti: Cultural center organized by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux
• Indian Mounds Regional Park
• Oheyawahe (Pilot Knob Preservation site)
Regional educators and knowledge-keepers we admire:
Dana Thompson and Sean Sherman,Linda Black Elk, Laura Youngbird, Hope Flanagan, Joe Bendickson, Dr. Brenda Child, Dr. Kate Beane, Angela Two Stars, Marlena Myles, Graci Horne
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