ELGL worked with the City of Anchorage, AK and Code for Anchorage to set up a text line to recognize Indigenous People’s Day and also to share an informational text number for land acknowledgments at the commencement of ELGL events:
To learn the name of the Indigenous People who are the traditional caretakers of the land on which you live, please text your zip code (or city, state, and zip code) to 1-844-910-ELGL (3545).
Here is the land recognition language that ELGL uses to start our online events:
We gather as ELGL on the unceded lands of many Indigenous Peoples. As we are a virtual conference, and spread across the country, please text your city, state; or zip code; or city, region, and country (Canada, NZ, Australia) to 1-844-910-ELGL (3545).
You will get a response naming the Indigenous Peoples who are the traditional caretakers of the land on which you live. Special thanks to Brendan Babb, the City of Anchorage i-team, and Code for Anchorage for setting up this learning opportunity.
Please take a moment to acknowledge the traditional caretakers of the land where you live, and commit to learning more about your indigenous communities if you have not yet done so. We will pause for a moment so you can do that. If you’d like, you can add your land acknowledgement in the chat box.
We honor with gratitude the land itself, and the people, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations, who have stewarded this land.
The purpose of acknowledging the local land is to tell the story of the co-evolution of land, plants, animals, and humans who were here before people from Europe began replacing local history with their own, to fill in the native history that has been missing from our awareness.
A land acknowledgement recognizes and respects Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of the land, and the relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories.