Personal Land Acknowledgement and Committment to Truth and Reconciliation

From Cleo, Valleyfield Outside founder

As the founder of Valleyfield Outside, I love this land, and one of my biggest goals it to share that love with the kids and adults who come to this program.

This land is Indigenous. Loving the land means respecting its history and people.

This Land Acknowledgement is not a box to be checked, a script to be read, or an email signature to write and then ignore. In fact, this is not a Land Acknowledgement.

A Land Acknowledgement is a living thing, personal and interpersonal, changing and growing. I’m committed to integrating real land acknowledgement — of the Land’s intrinsic value, its history, its people, their history, and our relationship with it — every time I am on the Land.

Here is a brief rundown of what Valleyfield Outside acknowledges about the land we play on.

This land belongs to the Kanien’kaha’ka (Mohawk) people, who have lived here since time immemorial. Other people are visitors here, and we owe our hosts respect.
Relationships between settlers and Indigenous people here should follow the principles agreed upon in the Two Row Wampum in 1613. This treaty is still valid today, and I commit to following its princples of peace, friendship, respect, and non-interference.
The land is a living thing, with its own intrinsic value, beyond any value it gives to human beings.
The plants and animals on the land have equal right to its use as we human beings do.
The Kanien’keha’ka and other Indigenous people of Canada have been deeply wronged by the people who colonized this land. Many of us, including myself, continue to benefit from those wrongs. It is our responsability to make things right, and one step towards that is to answer the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action.

Also, a Land Acknolwedgement is BS if it doesn’t come with action.

Committment to action

At Valleyfield Outside, I commit to Calls to Action 62 to 63 regarding education. The wonderful child-friendly Spirit Bear’s guide to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada explains these two Calls to Action as:

62 – We call on all governments in Canada to work with residential school Survivors and other Aboriginal people to give teachers the tools they need so that every student in Canada can learn about Aboriginal people and cultures, including residential schools. Teachers should also learn to use Aboriginal teaching styles.

63 – We call on the leaders in charge of education in Canada to always work on improving education about Aboriginal people and cultures.
Spirit Bear’s Guide to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Specifically, through the Valleyfield Outside programs I commit to:

Work with residential school Survivors and Aboriginal people to teach children (and adults) about Aboriginal people and cultures
To learn and use Aboriginal teaching styles to the extent that this is appropriate (based on which teaching styles Indigenous people choose to share with me)
To continually educate myself about Aboriginal people and cultures, by learning from Aboriginal people, and I further commit to ensure that the people I learn from are paid for their time and sharing

In addition to these committments to Truth and Reconciliation, I also commit to good land stewardship. I promise to:

Remove trash or other harms from the land when I find them
Avoid doing damage to the Land and its inhabitants, by following guidelines including but not limited to responsable foraging, only using dead and down sticks for play, not harming or breaking living trees, and leaving animal homes undisturbed
To share good land stewardship practices with participants through continual conversation and learning