1 Land Acknowledgement

Hundreds of years ago, Europeans came to what is now North America. At first Europeans were exploring new lands for trade and travel routes, to find natural resources, and to claim land. However, when they recognized the beauty and abundant resources in what is now Canada, they began to extract the resources to ship them back to Europe and they also encouraged other Europeans to immigrate to the land to get away from the difficult situations in Europe. This resulted in Europeans taking control of the land, pushing Indigenous peoples to less desirable locations, and attempting to assimilate Indigenous peoples into European culture. We include this land acknowledgement in order to recognize these devastating acts and work toward repairing the relationships between the different groups of people now living on the land.​

Consider what this land acknowledgement means to you and how it will help you build relationships with people you interact with.​

We respectfully recognize that ​the homes of the authors

 are located on the original lands of the

Anishinaabe, Ininiwak, Anishininwak, Dakota, and Dene peoples,

and on the homeland of the Red River Métis Nation.​

In acknowledging that we are seeking “all” truths, we recognize that the content of this textbook is firmly rooted in Western traditions of knowledge, which risks re-enforcing it as the “standard” and alienating other cultural approaches to knowledge.^[1]

In sharing this land acknowledgement, we aim to pause and create space and gratitude for the original stewards of this beautiful land – the Anishinaabe, Ininiwak, Anishininwak, Dakota, Dene, and Métis peoples – and are open to different ways of understanding, listening, and experiencing the world. Consider where you are living and the Indigenous peoples who lived on the land before the European settlers and immigrants arrived. What kind of acknowledgement can you offer?