Woke Acknowledgements

As anybody who has read my novel Much Ado About Corona knows, it contains many characters of Indigenous heritage. "Grandad" in particular, a full-blood Ojibwe, is a favourite among readers. While I only have a sliver of native DNA from my mother's side, I've studied the history and culture of Canada's First Nations people with great respect and appreciation.

Nonetheless, I cringe before each performance at my local Stratford Festival when they acknowledge the Huron-Wendat, the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinaabe people as the original stewards of the land on which the theatres are built.

Why does this bother me? It seems like mere virtue-signalling and guilt-tripping by people who likely have little understanding of pre-colonial history. As Grant A. Brown, in his article The Unbearable Wokeness of Being in Stratford, writes:

The Festival Theatre’s Executive Director has stated in the local newspaper that “land acknowledgements” are a traditional practise at Indigenous formal gatherings, justifying constant replication in the spirit of being “welcoming” and “inclusive.” Never mind that standard historical works concluded that the dense forests in this area were never occupied territories before Europeans cleared the trees and plowed the fields. There is no evidence they were even Indigenous hunting grounds.

More important, it is difficult to see how today’s remnants of the Huron-Wendat would feel welcomed by a recognition of Haudenosaunee presence in the territory, having been massacred and driven out of southwestern Ontario by them in the 1600s. Nor is it likely that the Haudenosaunee traditionally practised land acknowledgements in favour of the Huron-Wendat who preceded them.

It may come as a surprise to many people to know that numerous Indigenous tribes committed wide-scale murder, genocide and cannibalism of other warring tribes. For a shocking historical novel of life in seventeenth century Ontario, Brian Moore's Black Robe offers an account which I wouldn't recommend as a bedtime story for your young ones.

Stay sane, stay real,

John C. A. Manley

PS I had a Métis beta reader from Northern Ontario review Much Ado About Corona and help me make the Indigenous content accurate and balanced. In the end, the story reflects a need to put the past behind us and band together as fellow human beings to fight the great evils confronting us today.

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