TNP311{Dispatch: March 25, 2026} Are Territorial Acknowledgements Necessary or Ritualized Awkwardness?

This episode features my very special guest, Alysha! She's here for her third work-stay on the land, learning construction skills as she helps my husband, Ruben, build a livestock shelter. Alysha has been an amazing role model, resource, and thought partner for me around anti-colonialism for many years. Once again, here she is, advancing my thinking on the subject. Come grapple with us as we do morning horse chores!

I know that as a settler, a Land Acknowledgement isn't for me.

But as a participant in settler colonialism, it is about me in a way, and it does impact me in that it has been and continues to be  a learning process.

I hope that, since we're trying to have a holistic, nuanced, and relational conversation about Land Acknowledgements, I'll be forgiven for saying that I believe having moral ambition benefits me by improving my self-esteem. I believe awkward participation in Land Acknowledgements is a pro-social, collective good. I don't know where the line is where it becomes a social detriment or we become numb to it, but I do think it's important they are not limited to formal events and those involving people who move the levers of institutional power.

Again, this process is of course not about making me, as a settler, feel good. But it does make me feel a lot of things, and not all of them are bad.

UPDATE March 26, 2026: I'm realizing that I threw the term "moral ambition" out into the conversation via the show notes and it perhaps lands a bit out of context. I recently published an episode, TNP306 {Dispatch: Jan 30, 2026} Lively v. Baldoni, Avoidant Attachment, and Moral Ambition, in which I grapple with, and ultimately endorse, that concept. The way I feel it relates here is that I tend to think that the way we ought to address numbness to the challenges of life is not to curtail our engagement but rather to become more present, to cultivate more maturity (emotional and spiritual), to stick with the trouble. There is a risk we fail, but it's honourable to try.

And that's all I have to say about that. 😅

Note: Dispatch episodes are recorded en plein air with all the sounds of farm life and chores in the background, (and sometimes a bit loud). We tried not to sniff too much but it was a cold morning, and sometimes the feed bags make a big tarp-in-the-wind-like sound. If auditory sensitivity is part of your experience, please consult your podcast player for a transcript.

With gratitude for the article of note to the writer, Khelsilem: Understanding the Purpose, Limits, and Misuse of "Land Acknowledgements": On symbolism, substance, and the limits of public ritual

✨

Sign up for my newsletter to receive the reminder for Free April: Celebrating the 5th Anniversary of The Numinous Network