This week, Esther Belin speaks with Allison Akootchook Warden, an interdisciplinary artist from the Alaskan Native village of Kaktovik. They discuss the practice of acknowledging land before events and Warden’s poem “we acknowledge ourselves,” which opens the Land Acknowledgments special issue of Poetry magazine. Warden’s writing process for this poem was incredibly collaborative, involving many members of her community, and the poem acknowledges original inhabitants, the historical and current situations connecting them to the land, as well as settlers and foreign governments. “we acknowledge ourselves,” which you’ll hear Warden read from, presents an opportunity to restore, celebrate, heal, and grieve.

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