Self-location is an important cognitive function. It shows us how perception and action are interrelated, how one’s self-perception and one’s capacity to act–and the range of replies they find available to themselves–are connected.

Self-location, when discussing indigeneity and imperialism, encourages listeners and participants to reposition themselves in the conversation. Self-location is a pushback at colonialism. It requires that people consider, often for the first time, how they arrived here, why they are here, who they share this space with, and what that might mean for others.

Some questions to consider:

• Who are you? What is your name? Your name tells a story–what is that story?
• Who are your ancestors? Your family, biological or fictive? What are your ties, and which way to they extend? (Out, down, up, all three?) Who roots you?
• What brought your ancestors to North America? To the U.S.? To Tennessee?
• Do you know the history of the land you live/work on? Does that history encompass indigenous narratives, or just settler narratives?
• Have your family or ancestors been impacted by colonization, oppression, structural violence, or war?
• Have you benefitted from settler systems in North America?

The purpose of this exercise is not to make anyone feel excluded, or unwelcome. The purpose is to help people position themselves appropriately for the discussion.

Establishing where we exist in relation to the thing we’re going to do is critical, as decolonizing is about doing.

We begin today by recognizing and acknowledging that we are on the historic Homeland of the Chickasaw Nation of which they inhabited. Memphis, and all of Tennessee, was the long established territory for many indigenous peoples prior to their forced removal and unforeseen extinction. We have a responsibility to acknowledge the peoples and histories of these lands. Our ability to live here is the result of direct coercion, forced dispossession, and deliberate colonization. To ignore that is to perpetuate injustice to populations of people that no longer exist in this state, yet, have established major societies elsewhere in this country. The City of Memphis respects the diverse communities it touches, including those who occupied this territory originally, those brought to it by force, and those who settled here in search of better circumstances. We understand that territorial acknowledgement is only a gesture, but it represents the beginning of our commitment to justice and reconciliation in the United States.

Thank you to the Chickasaw Nation (and to their legal counsel and Department of Culture and Humanities specifically) for the comments and revisions.