If you’re going to acknowledge the land, you need to actively defend it.
If you’re defending the land, you also need to acknowledge it.
Settlers: when your feet hit the pavement, earth or dirt know you’re crossing old Indigenous footpaths, village sites, ossuaries, sacred places, hunting grounds, medicial gathering places, and burial grounds. Know that the place your house sits or car rests or workplace is, is a site of Indigenous knowledge and history. Know that every pipeline, every industrial project, every state infrastructure project disrupts these sites and erases that history. Every time the colonial courts lay an injunction against Indigenous people it is an attack, and a continuation of colonization and imperialism. Every time colonial courts force Indigenous people to use that same colonial system it’s a continuation of colonization. Know that the installation of band councils by the state was a violent and resisted act. Know that every time the crown or corporations consults and signs contracts with band councils it is a continuation of colonization and erasure of Indigenous ways – and every time you as an individual say that consultation is enough, you are the problem too.
https://native-land.ca
Native Land Digital is a mapping project initially started by an Okanagan settler, now in the hands and direction of Indigenous peoples.
https://www.whose.land/
Whose Land is a web-based app that uses GIS technology to assist users in identifying Indigenous Nations, territories, and Indigenous communities across Canada. The app can be used for learning about the territory your home or business is situated on, finding information for a land acknowledgement, and learning about the treaties and agreements signed across Canada.
