Until indigenous populations start doing their own land acknowledgements to "honor" (or whatever is supposedly intended) the people that they displaced through violent conquest, I will go on believing that they're complete and utter BS. Human history is defined by people taking each other's land and resources if they can get away with it. Just because it happened to them during the relatively recent period known as "recorded history" does not put them in a separate, protected class and absolve their ancestors of basically doing the same things before the white man showed up. It's nothing but undiluted, performative hypocrisy - as if Native Americans all lived in peace and harmony with one another until Europeans came. News flash: they did not. They warred, kidnapped, raped and pillaged one another for thousands of years. Photographs and oral histories of their subjugation don't negate the atrocities they themselves committed before that technology was available on the continent.
I regretfully have stopped attending/supporting theatre in my city.
After the pandemic 😷 we attended 1 show, upon arrival were berated by an administrator for not being masked, (they had no masks available to purchase) so we went home got our masks, came back & were greeted by the land acknowledgment……for a moment thinking I was at the wrong show. Hadn’t heard of the practice before.
So we haven’t been back since especially since the addition of all the add on costs etc.
Add to the argument ". The Louisiana Purchase" where the US gov't paid $ to France, Gadsden Purchase for New Mexico and Arizona from Mexico, Oregon Territory from Great Britain, California both purchased and conquest from Mexico, Alaska purchased from Russia.
I guess my point is USA fought England for original 13 colonies and purchased the remainder( I realize there are many smaller territories/islands not mentioned by my main point is the whole "stolen" land theme is rubbish.
Believe what you will, but the land was here before the Indians were. Just because they found it empty and settled on it, doesn’t make them indigenous people. The only indigenous people are the first Homo Sapiens who were born or evolved in Africa. The rest are descended from them and wandered the entire planet before settling down to one place.
I’m one of those “Old World architecture” appreciators who now has doubts about the “timeline” and the “official narrative” we have been told in history books, fed in movies and TV, and see in things like Ickypedia. I feel like “I don’t know what I don’t know” is a good philosophy. I also think the boxes we are forced to check are designed to keep the people divided.
Great interview. Us well-meaning liberal white people tend to agglomerate "other" voices in a way that, ironically, erases the diversity of opinion and belief within those communities. It's absurd to think all Indigenous people want to be represented, recognized, or supported the same way; yet the loudest, angriest activists rely on overwhelming surface-level solidarity to frighten away even minor disagreement. Ms. Pilotte is almost bafflingly humble and reasonable, perhaps because her understanding is honed by facing nonsensical nuances like not being "legally" Native. (It doesn't escape me, either, that she does not appear to have fallen into the trend of using politics to advance her personal or professional standing.) I hope voices like hers may be heard, metaphorically and literally, as the American theatre stops gazing at its navel and begins to question the mob-ocracy that has privileged outrage and political allegiance over discussion and sharing of different views.
Well said. Unfortunately the entire concept of "equality of outcome" requires dividing people into groups--those advocating for this world view insist that there is diversity and variety within those groups--but frequently there's no diversity of thought or values or opinion, regardless of declarations like that there are 500+ indigenous tribes etc. They all get lumped together within the I in BIPOC.
That is not to say that certain segments of the North American population are not impoverished as a result of long ago conflicts and poorly understood(and enforced) treaties and therefore should be afforded better opportunities to take part in the theatre and film industries. Those opportunities will not materialise through cheap talk including land acknowledgements but through mentorships, outreach programmes and the like. As you point out, raising money and awareness for such programmes would be a better use of everyone's time. And taking the theatre to the reservations etc could broaden everyone's horizons.
To presume there is a single ancient “owner” of land, one rightful, solitary, original “owner” is so ridiculous it’s hard not to just snicker at it. Various peoples, families, tribes, nations have settled on any given land at different times. And all of them were imperfect, cruel, kind, greedy, or magnanimous, regardless of their societal connection.
Let’s just create great art and express our take on the human condition.
Well said!
Until indigenous populations start doing their own land acknowledgements to "honor" (or whatever is supposedly intended) the people that they displaced through violent conquest, I will go on believing that they're complete and utter BS. Human history is defined by people taking each other's land and resources if they can get away with it. Just because it happened to them during the relatively recent period known as "recorded history" does not put them in a separate, protected class and absolve their ancestors of basically doing the same things before the white man showed up. It's nothing but undiluted, performative hypocrisy - as if Native Americans all lived in peace and harmony with one another until Europeans came. News flash: they did not. They warred, kidnapped, raped and pillaged one another for thousands of years. Photographs and oral histories of their subjugation don't negate the atrocities they themselves committed before that technology was available on the continent.
I regretfully have stopped attending/supporting theatre in my city.
After the pandemic 😷 we attended 1 show, upon arrival were berated by an administrator for not being masked, (they had no masks available to purchase) so we went home got our masks, came back & were greeted by the land acknowledgment……for a moment thinking I was at the wrong show. Hadn’t heard of the practice before.
So we haven’t been back since especially since the addition of all the add on costs etc.
It’s just doesn’t bring us joy any longer.
That makes me sad. But I understand.
Add to the argument ". The Louisiana Purchase" where the US gov't paid $ to France, Gadsden Purchase for New Mexico and Arizona from Mexico, Oregon Territory from Great Britain, California both purchased and conquest from Mexico, Alaska purchased from Russia.
I guess my point is USA fought England for original 13 colonies and purchased the remainder( I realize there are many smaller territories/islands not mentioned by my main point is the whole "stolen" land theme is rubbish.
Believe what you will, but the land was here before the Indians were. Just because they found it empty and settled on it, doesn’t make them indigenous people. The only indigenous people are the first Homo Sapiens who were born or evolved in Africa. The rest are descended from them and wandered the entire planet before settling down to one place.
I’m one of those “Old World architecture” appreciators who now has doubts about the “timeline” and the “official narrative” we have been told in history books, fed in movies and TV, and see in things like Ickypedia. I feel like “I don’t know what I don’t know” is a good philosophy. I also think the boxes we are forced to check are designed to keep the people divided.
I didn’t realize it came to Broadway.
It is piety without faith, an endless eulogy to the failure to preserve culture performed at a cultural event, irony beyond comprehension.
No different than clasping hands at a prayer tent, pretending sincerity, counting the till.
Great interview. Us well-meaning liberal white people tend to agglomerate "other" voices in a way that, ironically, erases the diversity of opinion and belief within those communities. It's absurd to think all Indigenous people want to be represented, recognized, or supported the same way; yet the loudest, angriest activists rely on overwhelming surface-level solidarity to frighten away even minor disagreement. Ms. Pilotte is almost bafflingly humble and reasonable, perhaps because her understanding is honed by facing nonsensical nuances like not being "legally" Native. (It doesn't escape me, either, that she does not appear to have fallen into the trend of using politics to advance her personal or professional standing.) I hope voices like hers may be heard, metaphorically and literally, as the American theatre stops gazing at its navel and begins to question the mob-ocracy that has privileged outrage and political allegiance over discussion and sharing of different views.
Well said. Unfortunately the entire concept of "equality of outcome" requires dividing people into groups--those advocating for this world view insist that there is diversity and variety within those groups--but frequently there's no diversity of thought or values or opinion, regardless of declarations like that there are 500+ indigenous tribes etc. They all get lumped together within the I in BIPOC.
This essay/interview reminded me of this essay from 2021, looking at the Myth of Stolen Land. https://historyreclaimed.co.uk/the-myth-of-the-stolen-country/
That is not to say that certain segments of the North American population are not impoverished as a result of long ago conflicts and poorly understood(and enforced) treaties and therefore should be afforded better opportunities to take part in the theatre and film industries. Those opportunities will not materialise through cheap talk including land acknowledgements but through mentorships, outreach programmes and the like. As you point out, raising money and awareness for such programmes would be a better use of everyone's time. And taking the theatre to the reservations etc could broaden everyone's horizons.
To presume there is a single ancient “owner” of land, one rightful, solitary, original “owner” is so ridiculous it’s hard not to just snicker at it. Various peoples, families, tribes, nations have settled on any given land at different times. And all of them were imperfect, cruel, kind, greedy, or magnanimous, regardless of their societal connection.
Let’s just create great art and express our take on the human condition.
Totally agree that in order to make these "acknowledgements" history has to be simplified and dumbed down to a crazy degree.