Territory Acknowledgements

Modelling decolonizing practices / learning about local Indigenous Territories

We encourage you to make the acknowledgments heart-felt and personal; to do them in way that meaningfully reflects the importance of naming the traditional territories upon which the workshop is taking place, and situating this practice as part of ongoing work to unsettle deeply internalized colonial relationships to the land and each other.

Check out these sample Territory Acknowledgments with KimMortal + JB The First Lady:

Go to native-land.ca to find out the Territories that you are learning on.

When making land acknowledgements meaningful, authentic and personal, consider adding some of the following:

  • Your own ancestral background/indigeneity
  • Acknowledging you are a settler (if you are not Indigenous to these lands) who benefits from settler colonial Canada
  • “Unceded” means that this land is stolen
  • Settler colonialism is ongoing
  • Your commitment to decolonizing work, and this work being part of that

Not sure how to make Territory Acknowledgments less of a token gesture?​

Get the goods on why acknowledgments matter, and how to make them real and heart-felt: https://raventrust.com/territorial-acknowledgement/

You might also consider screening these videos with your students:

Our Shared Territories: A short film featuring local Indigenous leaders that helps us to dig a little deeper into why Territory Acknowledgments are so important.

Baroness von Sketch, the all-female sketch comedy show, humourously calls out the ‘check-box’ approach to Territory Acknowledgements.