THE IMPORTANCE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Dearest Community, 

We have grown tremendously this past year, deepening our understanding because of your partnership. We are taking what we have learned and are developing a framework that will help teams increase their awareness and take action on their commitment to equity and justice. This framework will identify trends and patterns related to decolonization and anti-racism. One key component the framework will include is acknowledgment. 

We are grateful for the various contributors who are our “elders” in defining forms of dominance, leaders like Betita Martinez, Sharon Martinas, Tema Okun, Gloria Anzaldua, Lisa Delpit, and Dr. Ibram X Kendi. Through our research, meditations with ancestors, and discussions with current and new Colibrí Collaborators, specifically David Boone, we are making tools to support individuals and teams to practice acknowledgment. It is a necessary phase of our work with teams.

From Denial to Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment is to “name and accept the existence or truth of something.” It prepares us to take action encompassing a complete reality, that of our own and others. It opens us up to multiple realities. 

Dr. Ibram X Kendi says, “I recognized that the heartbeat historically of racism has been denial, to deny that one's ideas, policies and certainly oneself and one’s nation is racist. By contrast, the heartbeat of anti-racism is confession, is admission, is acknowledgment, is the willingness to be vulnerable, to identify the times in which we are being racist. To be willing to diagnose ourselves, our country, and our ideas and our policies.”

Moving from denial to acknowledgment looks and feels different among those who have benefited from the current forms of dominance, and those who have not. For example, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) on teams have felt affirmed and been unsurprised when we at Colibrí share a “diagnosis,” a summary from our listening of team members’ lived experiences. As BIPOC, we live in a world where our lived experience is secondary to the mainstream, so we practice acknowledgment often. We sometimes find resistance from BIPOC team who may have taken on characteristics of dominance so that they can survive in these environments. We have experienced the most resistance from white staff members. They may feel guilty in learning about the oppressive experiences of others and deny any responsibility for this oppression. Acknowledgment is often hardest for them, yet it is a necessary practice. Those who have benefited from white, heteronormative, dominant power, may feel like they are losing something in acknowledging. 

Acknowledgment as Healing

Healing can’t begin without giving voice to acknowledgement. We begin to repair when we accept and take responsibility for the experiences of the communities we center, those who have been most impacted. When teams arrive at a place of acknowledgment, the actions they take are more inclusive and reflective of reality. They can no longer find comfort in white dominant culture and less willing to tolerate the systems of power that deny the humanity and reality of everyone as “just the way things are.” In this place of openness, possibilities and solutions are more expansive. 

We will continue to share our learning and we thank you for your ongoing commitment to walking the path of liberation. We also deeply appreciate your referrals. Partners who arrive from referrals are often open, ready to learn, and act from a place of acknowledgment. THANK YOU!

Image Description(s):

At the top, there is an image of a Live Oak tree in full-leaf, with a large and impressive array of branches that extend to the ground then reach upwards.

Land Acknowledgment:

At Colibrí we do this by acknowledging and thanking the people and ancestors of the Bay Area, where many of the Colibrí members call home, the Muwekma Ohlone people, oak trees, grizzly bears, feather grasses, and other ancestors. We support the movement to matriate the land and encourage you to do so as well by donating to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.

*We appreciate the wisdom and movement The Nap Ministry has unfolded and recommend others to follow.