Traditional Land Acknowledgement Statement
We would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on land that has been inhabited and stewarded by Indigenous peoples from the beginning.
As settlers, we are grateful for the opportunity to meet here and we thank all the generations of people who have cared for this land, these waters, and all the plants and animals. We honour their ways of being and ways of knowing. We honour and respect the grandfather rocks, the grandmother plants and medicines, the waters and our brother and sister animals that continue to thrive in this place.
In particular, we acknowledge the traditional territory of the Anishnaabeg, specifically the Ojibway, Chippewa and Odawa peoples. This territory is covered by the Williams Treaty (of 1923) and the J. Collins land purchase (of 1785).
We recognize the contributions that First Nations, Metis, Inuit and other Indigenous peoples have made in shaping and strengthening this community, our province and country.
This recognition of the contributions and historic importance of Indigenous people must also be clearly and overtly connected to our collective commitment to make the promise and challenge of Truth and Reconciliation real in our communities.