What is a Land Acknowledgement?
Land acknowledgements are often shared before events to recognize and reflect on our relationships to the land and the Indigenous Peoples that stewarded these lands for thousands of years.
Land acknowledgements are meant to be a respective and active process working towards connection, education, reconciliation, and healing. They are not meant to serve as hollow words or instil guilt.
Tips for writing a meaningful land acknowledgement:
- Learn whose land you live on: https://native-land.ca/ or https://www.whose.land/en/
- Learn about treaty rights
- Reflect on what your relationship to the land is and what you would like it to be
- Reflect on what reconciliation means to you
Contributor Land Acknowledgements
I acknowledge that the land now known as Kitchener is the traditional, ancestral, unceded, and/or treaty territories of the Haudenosaunee (Ho-deh-no-show-nee), Anishinaabe (Ah-nish-nah-bay) and Neutral People. I am grateful to the Indigenous Peoples who have inhabited and stewarded these lands for centuries, and continue to do so today and acknowledge the importance of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum to our relations with this land and each other.
Reading and writing poetry has always been a reflective process for me. The following poem (right) by Dierdre Lee has helped me reflect on my relationship and responsibilities to the land and reconciliation.
Rashmeet Kaur
I acknowledge that the land currently known as Richmond Hill is the traditional and/or treaty territory of the Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Anishinaabe Peoples. Over hundreds of years, Richmond Hill has been traversed by First Nations peoples and is now home to Indigenous Peoples from across Turtle Island. I recognize the enduring presence of Indigenous Peoples on and connected to this land, and I am thankful for the opportunity to learn from and work with these Indigenous communities towards reconciliation.
Morgan Shearer
I acknowledge that the land now known as Mississauga is the ancestral treaty territories of the Mississauga of the Credit First Nations. Today, thousands of Indigenous Peoples inhabit this land and call it their home. I understand that there are many years of history connected to this land and I am grateful for the opportunity to live and study here. I am grateful to be able to educate myself about the traditions and the history of the Mississauga Credit First Nations. I am excited to work with Indigenous communities towards reconciliation.
Salman Shah
I acknowledge that the land currently known as Guelph is situated on the ancestral homelands of the Anishinaabek Peoples, specifically the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. I recognize that this place is home to many past, present, and future First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to learn and work and study here and recognize the presence of the Indigenous Peoples connected to this land. I believe that it is vital to recognize the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation Peoples for their care, and teachings about the earth and our relations. However we must also honor those teachings through our interactions today and every day hereafter. May we dedicate ourselves to moving forward with partnership, collaboration, and reconciliation, with Indigenous communities as we learn and contemplate the possibilities that lay ahead.
Sara Younes
I acknowledge that the area we now call Guelph resides on the ancestral territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (of the Anishinaabek Nation), where I am fortunate to be living and receiving a postsecondary education. The Anishinaabek Peoples once occupied much of the land in the Great Lakes region. They were known for their birch bark canoes, their cultivation of corn and maple syrup, and their dedication to living in harmony with nature. This rich culture was disrupted when colonizers arrived in 1784, but has never been forgotten. Acknowledging the history of the land I grew up on compels me to want to continue learning and fight harder for the rights of Indigenous people in an effort to dismantle colonialism. I am inspired by their determination to protect this land and am committed to becoming an advocate for environmental justice alongside them.
Rose Cranmer