Land Acknowledgement

As individuals living in Ontario, contributors to this resource are connected to the homelands and treaty lands of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinabewaki, Attiwonderonk, Chippewa, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Mississauga and Wendake-Nionwetsïo (Native-Land.ca) among other peoples who historically lived on the lands, fished from the lakes and rivers and hunted from the forests of this place.

Some people on this land live among ancient ancestors and carry on the legacies of First Peoples. Others arrived recently as colonizers, refugees or immigrants. Residing here and being sustained by this land, we all are treaty people governed by several of the over 40 treaties and other agreements that First Nations signed as independent, self-governing nations and by the Dish With One Spoon Treaty between Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that binds us all to share the territory in peace and to protect the land.

In our teaching and learning, we aspire to good hearts and good minds. We acknowledge the land as a sentient and life-sustaining being that surrounds us with cooling forests that refresh our air, with rivers and lakes that provide fresh water and food and with rich soils that grow our food. We acknowledge the land as a suffering being, ravaged by centuries of colonization, extraction and neglect.

If we truly acknowledge the land, we must acknowledge fully the destruction and loss experienced by those who are dispossessed and dislocated across the lands some call Canada. We must listen now actively to First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples and learn how we might honour all our relations.