Resources
Ways to engage in conversations about Land Acknowledgments
Why add context or personalize a land acknowledgement
We at the ETSB, encourage settler and non-Indigenous staff, faculty, and students to personalize and contextualize their land acknowledgments. Writing a personal land acknowledgment should be self-reflective and is a good place to begin to interrogate personal and institutional complicity in ongoing settler-colonialism.
Land acknowledgments shouldn’t be copied, pasted and read statements. Using your institutions' land acknowledgment can serve as a guiding tool in making sure the proper Nation and land is being identified and honored, but the rest is up to you! Actions speak louder than words, so by personalizing the land acknowledgment to connect to the context of the gathering it will make it easier to accompany those words with real concrete actions. You need to back up what you are saying and truly believe in it, it can’t just be this lip service.
What to consider when personalizing
Here are a few things to consider when personalizing your land acknowledgment:
Positionality (Who are you? What lands do you come from?)
What is the purpose of the event/activity and how that relates back to your responsibility to the land and its original peoples
Is there a concrete action that can come out of your event that could support the local Indigenous community?
What am I doing to work towards reconciliation that is beyond this territorial acknowledgement?
Example of a Personalized Land Acknowledgement
At an opening of a school garden
The (Name of School/Centre/Board) Welcome everyone, I am Jane Smith. I grew up in Nova Scotia on the traditional lands of the Mi’kmaq and am now fortunate to be part of the Poppy Elementary School family. I acknowledge that it is a great privilege to gather, learn, work and play on the traditional lands and waterways of the Abenaki Nation who are part of the W8banaki Confederacy. We honor their history, traditions, and stewardship of this Land by committing to learning more about their Nation’s ways of knowing, seeing and doing.
As an educational community, we recognize we are part of an institution that contributed to the systematic erasure of Indigenous peoples and their cultures. As we celebrate the opening of our school garden, we recognize the contributions of Indigenous people to the stewardship of the land. When we plant our squash, corn and beans together as the Three Sisters, we acknowledge that this is traditional knowledge we have gained from the Abenaki people. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves and to build an ongoing relationship with this Land and its people. We will work together to challenge the legacies of colonialism by building our capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy and mutual respect.
Key terms and basic concepts
Abenaki: A·buh·naa·kee
W8banaki: WAHB-uh-nah-kee. ("Wahb" rhymes with "sob.")
W8banaki: The Abenaki Nation’s name is derived from the words Waban and aki, meaning “land of the rising sun.”
Land Acknowledgment: A Land Acknowledgement is a formal statement where settlers recognize and respect Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of this land and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories.
Land Stewardship: caretaking of the land
Tradition: a long-established custom or belief that has been passed on from one generation to another.
Nation: a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.
Erasure: is the act of erasing, deleting, or removing something.
Systematic: Something that is done according to a fixed plan or system; methodical, repetitive.
Indigenous peoples: is a collective name for the original peoples of North America and their descendants. It includes First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people.
Culture: is the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group
Reconciliation: the act repairing a relationship that has once been broken with the intention of maintaining a well balanced connection.
Colonialism: is defined as “control by one power over a dependent area or people.” It occurs when one nation subjugates another, conquering its population and exploiting it, often while forcing its own language and cultural values upon its people.
Intercultural: describes when there is an exchange between various cultures.
Examples of Land Acknowledgments
Resources related to Abenaki people and territory
Resources on Land Acknowledgements
Canadian Association of University Teachers
Further Reading
OPINION: BEFORE YOU STATE A LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, MEAN IT
'I regret it': Hayden King on writing Ryerson University's territorial acknowledgement
Beyond territorial acknowledgments
Five Steps to Writing A Land Acknowledgment
Territory Acknowledgements- First Nations Health Authority
How to do a Land Acknowledgment
If you’re making a land acknowledgment, make sure you mean it
Reflection questions and prompts for conversations
What do you know about the land you live, work and play on?
Do you know which lands you were born/grew up on? Who are the First Peoples there?
Do you know about the native plants and animals of the land where you live?
What is your connection with the land, what does it mean to you?
How do you interact with the land? How do you learn from it?
What opportunities are available to staff and students to engage in learning from the natural world led by local Indigenous Peoples
What actions are you implementing in your district to support learning from the natural world for staff and students?
What do you know about the Abenaki Nation who are the traditional stewards of this land?
What steps can you take to incorporate an authentic Land Acknowledgment within your contexts?
What do you know about the 94 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission?
If you are a non-Indigenous person,what is your role and responsibility in contributing to truth and reconciliation?
If you are an Indigenous person, what role do you envision for non-Indigenous people who are working toward truth and reconciliation? How can you engage with non-Indigenous people in this work?
What new strategies can you implement immediately? Which ones need more planning and time?
Further learning:
What do you still need to learn?
Reflect on what makes you uncomfortable? Why?
What is missing for you to move forward?
Examine your implicit bias