Reflect on the Land Acknowledgement

[Example Land Acknowledgement by Prof. Jason Bazylak; you are encouraged to customize and share in your course]

“One of my favourite facts about the City of Toronto is that over half of Torontonians were born outside of Canada. I once surveyed my first year engineering students and they reported 48 different native languages. Toronto is a city of immigrants and has been for hundreds of years. Toronto is a place for different nations to join together for a common cause.

This is not a new feature of Toronto. For over 15,000 years Toronto has been a gathering site for humans. This sacred land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, a coming together of the Iroquois and Ojibwe Confederacies and other allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, Toronto is still a meeting place for Indigenous people from across Turtle Island, and immigrants, both new and old, from across the world. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, and on this territory.” – Prof. Jason Bazylak