Taylor Swift issued a land acknowledgement before her concert in Toronto last week in order to indicate that the event occurred on land purportedly stolen from Native Americans.
The progressive singer and songwriter, who endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris this year, posted the statement as a gesture to the Native Americans who occupied the land before European settlers arrived, a practice increasingly encouraged among leftist institutions.
“We acknowledge that we are performing today at Rogers Centre, located on Treaty 13 lands: traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the credit and the traditional home of many other nations including the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Chippewa, and Wendat peoples,” remarked a graphic projected on stage ahead of the performance. “We acknowledge the First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples whose original and treaty territories we stand upon.”
Treaty 13 refers to the Toronto Purchase, by which representatives of the British Crown acquired lands belonging to Mississauga peoples, including the modern city of Toronto.
Critics of land acknowledgements assert that the practice is virtue signaling and a mere performative gesture, since they do not result in the return of lands to Native Americans, as well as a racially divisive mechanism to instill guilt among those descended from Europeans.
They also note that many Native Americans, including the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, acquired their lands through conquering other Native Americans.
Swift has increasingly voiced progressive political views in recent years. Beyond releasing songs that promote homosexuality and transgenderism, she has backed Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee, as well as supported abortion and Black Lives Matter.
Many commentators and pundits had speculated as to whether Swift would openly endorse Harris, a move that may have impacted the election given the present popularity of the singer, especially as both the Trump and Harris campaigns attempted to court suburban female voters.
