“In the world we want many worlds to fit"

a Xicanx Land Acknowledgement as Trans-Indigenous Storytelling Praxis

Abstract

In theory, land acknowledgments engage with Indigenous ways of relating through place-based relationship formations, but in practice, rote declarations expressing appreciation for unceded territories are rarely followed with the repatriation of lands and resources to Indigenous Peoples. The purpose of this essay is to explore the radical potential of land acknowledgements for trans-Indigenous social justice worldmaking in the institutional context with which I am most familiar — the neoliberal university. As the popularity of land acknowledgments grows beyond sites of knowledge production, it is necessary to adapt this form of storytelling to the multitude of contexts that students, alum, and colleagues will navigate throughout their lives. The core of this essay examines the ways in which the Zapatista communiques model the transformative potential of land acknowledgments to intervene in capitalist ways of relationship building. My literary analysis examines the storied genealogies that inform Zapatismo to demonstrate how storytelling teaches place-based Indigenous values, which can be applied to other localized contexts to further the process of decolonization. This method of crafting land acknowledgments from place-based storied genealogies will inform my own Xicanx land acknowledgement as a narrative of solidarity with Indigenous Peoples. While many of us share Indigenous ancestry, we cannot claim to represent the sovereign Indigenous nations from which we have been displaced. Instead, my Xicanx land acknowledgment demonstrates how displacement informs our storied genealogies and invites us to intervene in colonial metanarratives rather than perpetuate Indigenous erasure and disenfranchisement by engaging in ethnic fraud and misappropriation.