The St. Mark’s Land Acknowledgement came about as the result of a group of parishioners meeting regularly to learn about, discuss, and promote social justice.
Through conversations during Sacred Ground meetings, the people in the Sacred Ground group felt called to explore the Land Acknowledgement idea. We didn’t fully understand what a Land Acknowledgement was, nor did we truly know how to go about “doing” a Land Acknowledgement.
Working closely with Joseph Standing Bear of Midwest SOARRING, we met and had numerous conversations with him regarding what the St. Mark’s Land Acknowledgement would look like, and how we would present it to our community.
Joseph stressed that we needed to do the work to write our own Land Acknowledgement, so that it would be specific and personal to St. Mark’s, and it would represent how we felt. Joseph also steered us to a specific person at the Downers Grove Public Library, to learn how that organization had written their Land Acknowledgement. This individual at the DGPL graciously gave her time to share the DGPL experience about writing the DGPL Land Acknowledgement. The DGPL representative had worked closely with Joseph Standing Bear, and she stressed that a Land Acknowledgement is a living and fluid document. It is meant to be the beginning of a relationship between a community and Indigenous people. A Land Acknowledgement is not intended to simply check a box. It is the beginning of an ongoing relationship to understand and build community ties between groups of people.
The Sacred Ground member who met with Joseph and the DGPL representative drafted a beginning document. Then, at a Sacred Ground meeting, group members read, dissected, edited, and changed the initial draft. Several days later, George shared the revised document with another Sacred Ground member, and she made a valuable suggestion. This document was then shared with Joseph, and he made one more suggestion. The document that we call our Land Acknowledgement was then approved by Vestry on August 31, 2022, and is currently posted on the outside of our building at two entrances.
We are proud of the work we have done thus far, and feel that this is just a beginning. We hope that others reading about this journey will join us.
