In 2021, we added a land acknowledgement to our Coracle Coaching and Consulting website. We decided to do so for a few reasons. We thought we would share with you a bit of our journey in learning about Canada’s relationship with the Indigenous peoples and hopefully give you some reasons to consider including a land acknowledgement on your website as well.
The 2021 news of the mass grave of 215 children’s bodies found at Kamloops Residential School brought Canada’s mistreatment of Indigenous people into the spotlight, injustice toward Indigenous people has been longstanding and continues to this day. The journey of learning about this began for us in the Spring of 2017, when I (Olive) attended a gathering where I listened to two Indigenous speakers share about their experiences of being taken from their families and forced into adoption (in what has since been termed, the “Sixties Scoop.”) Despite being born and raised in Canada, I had never heard about this. After the gathering, I looked up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) “Calls to Action” to gain a better understanding of what happened and what steps we could take toward healing. At that gathering, I was also introduced to the practice of land acknowledgements.
Land acknowledgements are an Indigenous protocol, originating from well before European contact when people would introduce themselves by the land they were from. For settlers today, land acknowledgements “provide an awareness of Indigenous presence and land rights, [as well as] recognize privilege,” according to Dawn Saunders Dahl, Indigenous Program Manager at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. Indigenous writer Selena Mills explains it this way, “Part of the point in making land acknowledgements is to recognize how systemic and institutional systems of power have oppressed Indigenous peoples, and how that oppression has historically influenced the way non-Indigenous people perceive and interact with Indigenous peoples… [it’s] about introducing non-Indigenous people to this land’s accurate confederate history and the importance of relationship to land despite the dominant worldview of owning the land” (emphasis hers).
The land acknowledgement is a statement recognizing by name the Indigenous peoples whose lands we live and work on, and thanking them for taking care of these lands which they have had a relationship with since long before Canada was established. In British Columbia, ninety-five percent of the lands are traditional unceded First Nations territory. This means that the First Nations people never legally signed away their lands to the Crown or to Canada. It’s like we are guests who mistreated our hosts, took over the place, claimed it as our own, and never left.
For businesses today, doing the research to find out whose land you’re operating on and including a land acknowledgement on your website is a small and tangible way to move toward reconciliation with the Indigenous community. It demonstrates a posture of learning and honouring that is opposite to our history of dominating and destroying. At Coracle Coaching and Consulting, we believe that businesses exist to serve our communities – and this includes participating in the reconciliation between Indigenous people and those of us who are settlers and have the privilege of benefitting from this land.
A land acknowledgement is but a first small step in the work of reconciliation. Perhaps this topic is relatively new to you but we encourage you to learn and keep seeking out opportunities to engage in reconciliation work. Tim and I still have a lot to learn but here is a list of resources we have found to be helpful, as a starting point:
Native-Land.ca – Find out whose land you are on
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) “Calls to Action” – read the calls to action that resulted from the TRC’s report
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s list of resources – read the report, as well as other documents and educational resources
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
EXAMPLES OF LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IN CANADA
When it comes to crafting land acknowledgements, here are some examples from clients of mine that you can use as reference or draw inspiration from language that speaks to you:
Dr. Vilija Petrauskas (Vancouver, BC)
I acknowledge the land on which we live, work, and play is the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Bright Wire Leadership (Calgary, AB)
In the spirit of reconciliation, Bright Wire Leadership acknowledges that our office lays on the land of the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Stoney Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation, and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.
Encore Business Solutions (Winnipeg, MB)
The team at Encore acknowledges that our head office is on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional gathering place of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene people and the traditional homeland of the Métis people. This land acknowledgement is a small part of our efforts in making our company more diverse, equitable, and inclusive for everyone.
Munipass (King City, Ontario)
Headquartered in King City Ontario, we acknowledge that we are on the traditional territories of the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinaabe peoples, whose presence here continues to this day. We also would like to acknowledge that these are the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit and to thank them and other Indigenous peoples for sharing this land with us.
WHERE DO YOU ADD YOUR LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT?
There’s a few places on your website that you could add a land acknowledgement:
- About Page – some businesses add their land acknowledgement on their About Page, as part of their story or history
- Contact Page – some businesses add their land acknowledgement on their Contact Page, where their address is listed
- Land Acknowledgement Page – some businesses create a separate land acknowledgement page, which usually includes some resources for others interested in learning more about land acknowledgements, as well as some additional reconciliation work the business is doing
- Truth and Reconciliation Page – some businesses that are doing significant reconciliation work want to highlight the work they are doing, and will include the land acknowledgement on the same page
- Footer – some businesses add their land acknowledgement on the footer of their website, which appears at the bottom of every page
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If you are a Canadian business and including a land acknowledgement on your website is something important to you and you need assistance with this, contact us and we can help you as a complimentary service. It’s a small way we can practically participate in reconciliation work in Canada.
Coracle Coaching and Consulting operates on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), sq̓əc̓iy̓aɁɬ təməxʷ (Katzie), Semiahmoo, Kwantlen, S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), and other Coast Salish Peoples. We thank these First Peoples who continue to live on these lands and care for them, and whose relationship to these lands existed long before the founding of Canada or British Columbia.