What is a land acknowledgement?

A land acknowledgement is a short statement recognizing the Indigenous Nations whose traditional, ancestral, and often unceded territory a person is currently on. It is usually offered at the opening of events, meetings, classes, or public gatherings.

Where does the territorial data come from?

Territory, language, and treaty polygons come from Native Land Digital (native-land.ca), a not-for-profit organization that maps Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages. Boundaries are approximate, contested, and a work in progress.

Is my location stored or transmitted to the site operator?

No. The application runs entirely in your browser. Coordinates are sent directly from your device to the Native Land Digital API (and, for address lookup, to OpenStreetMap Nominatim). No coordinates, addresses, or session data are logged or transmitted to the operator of this site.

Does this app replace meaningful relationships with Indigenous Nations?

No. An automated acknowledgement is not a substitute for sustained relationships, material support, or action. This tool is intended as a starting point — please consult local Nations directly for anything more than a polite gesture.

What area does the app cover?

Coverage follows Native Land Digital's dataset, which is strongest in North America (Canada, the United States, and Mexico) and has growing coverage elsewhere. If the dataset has no polygon at your coordinates, the app will say so rather than invent one.

Can I use it offline?

The application shell is cached by a service worker after first load, so the page itself works offline. However, new territory lookups require an internet connection to reach the Native Land Digital API.

How do I share or print a certificate?

Every generated acknowledgement includes Copy, Markdown, Share image, Permalink, and Print actions. Share image renders the certificate as a PNG on-device; Print uses a dedicated print stylesheet that hides controls and keeps the certificate on one page.

The tone is deadpan, not ironic. The acknowledgements it produces are factually grounded in Native Land Digital's dataset and are structurally similar to the scripts used at real institutional events. The humour, such as it is, lies in the observation that a GPS-based automated statement is an honest reflection of how a great many land acknowledgements are, in practice, delivered. The underlying territorial information is not invented.

Can I read the acknowledgement aloud?

Yes. The 'Read aloud' button uses the browser's built-in speech synthesis. For Indigenous Nation names, the tool prefers any parenthesized anglicization provided by the dataset and otherwise strips combining marks and glottal-stop punctuation so a generic English voice has a chance. This is a best-effort fallback and not a pronunciation guide — please consult members of the Nations themselves for authoritative pronunciation.

Does the tool work without an internet connection?

The application shell (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, the map library, and the image renderer) is cached by a service worker after your first visit, so the page will load offline. New territory lookups, however, require a network connection to reach the Native Land Digital API.

How accurate is the map?

The territory polygons are drawn from Native Land Digital and are explicitly described by that organisation as approximate, contested, and a work in progress. The map inside each certificate is a small, non-interactive preview of the overlapping territories with the queried coordinate pinned in red, and should be treated as illustrative rather than authoritative.

Can I share a specific location with a friend?

Yes. The Permalink action copies a URL of the form https://acknowledge.land/?lat=LATITUDE&lng=LONGITUDE to your clipboard. Anyone who opens that link in a modern browser will get the same acknowledgement for the same coordinates, without needing location permission.

Automated Land Acknowledger — GPS-Based Land Acknowledgement Generator

Awaiting instruction. Location data is not transmitted; lookup occurs only when you tap the button above.

This application requires JavaScript. The Automated Land Acknowledger runs entirely in your browser and uses JavaScript to query the Native Land Digital API, render the certificate, and access geolocation. Please enable JavaScript and reload the page.

For information about Indigenous territories without using this tool, visit native-land.ca directly.

Certificate of Acknowledgement

Signed electronically by the bearer of the device

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Territory, language, and treaty data are retrieved from Native Land Digital, a not-for-profit mapping Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages. Boundaries are approximate, contested, and a work in progress; please consult local Nations directly for anything more than a polite gesture.

Reverse address lookup is provided by OpenStreetMap / Nominatim. This system is provided without warranty, sincerity calibration, or guarantee of moral improvement. No coordinates are stored, logged, or transmitted to the operator of this site.

About this tool

How it works

Generate an acknowledgement