We acknowledge that within Guelph we are currently occupying the ancestral lands of the Attawandaron/Chonnonton, the Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples and the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. We recognize the significance of the Dish with One Spoon Covenant to this land and offer our respect and gratitude to all of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island who have stewarded, loved & defended this land for centuries. In stating this, we acknowledge that we are here as a result of blood that has been shed through colonization, which continues to be the lived experience of Indigenous communities across Turtle Island.
In naming whose land we reside on, we must reflect on the historical and ongoing injustices that Indigenous people have been suffering in so-called Canada, and our current participation in ongoing colonization, which has brought many of us to settle on lands that are not our own. Acknowledging the land and the people whose land we are on is only a small part of the process of decolonization. A land acknowledgement does not exist in past tense because colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need to be accountable for our present participation in that process.
As social and environmental justice organizers, we must actively work towards dismantling the systems and institutions which continue to perpetuate violence towards Indigenous peoples on stolen lands.
