Land Acknowledgements as Delegitimization Ritual

A growing norm of publicly naming Indigenous predecessors at political events does more than express respect: it frames territorial legitimacy as contingent on ancestral claims and can be interpreted as denying the current state's moral title. When parties institutionalize such rituals, they risk making national legitimacy a live political issue rather than a ceremonial courtesy. — If true, the ritualization of land acknowledgements shifts symbolic politics into a contest over state legitimacy with implications for party coalitions, voter mobilization, and civic belonging.