Should public bodies, like city councils or universities, make Indigenous land acknowledgements?

Photo: UBCO

A lawsuit launched by several UBC professors undermines Truth and Reconciliation, according to the Chiefs of the Syilx Okanagan Nation.

The petition filed Monday on behalf of several professors and graduate students on both Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, calls for the school to stop engaging in Indigenous land acknowledgements as well as what they deem to be political activity that limits academic freedom and violates legislation requiring UBC to be non-political.

“The use of the term ’unceded’ is inherently political,” the petition said.

“The declaration that land is unceded is often considered synonymous or closely affiliated in meaning with the assertion that the territory of Canada is ’stolen land’ and that the speaker, at least to some degree, and in this respect, does not recognize Canada as a lawful or legitimate state.”

On the contrary, the Okanagan Nation Alliance says to stopping land acknowledgments would be attempting to “erase Syilx Okanagan presence and rights."

“The recognition of unceded Syilx Okanagan land is not a political maneuver; it is an acknowledgment of historical truths and legal realities,” Chief Clarence Louie, chair of the Chiefs Executive Council said in a media release.

“Attempts to silence these acknowledgments are attempts to erase Syilx Okanagan presence and rights.”

Chief Robert Louie of the Westbank First Nation added that academic educational institutions have a duty to foster environments of truth and reconciliation.

“Challenging the acknowledgment of unceded Syilx Okanagan territories undermines this duty and disrespects the Syilx Okanagan communities whose lands these institutions occupy,” Louie said.

Such acknowledgments align with the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, urging educational institutions to integrate First Nations knowledge and perspectives.

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