Place Beyond Land Acknowledgment...

Place is more than geography. Land carries memory, language, spirituality, governance, and relationships that continue across generations. For Indigenous peoples, place is living, relational, and deeply connected to identity, culture, and community.

If we are honest, although the recognition of land is an important acknowledgment of the centuries of attempted genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada, it can become an inadequate gesture without genuine action and reciprocal responsibility. There needs to be more done to create safe and brave spaces for Indigenous peoples. The solution is not to discourage land acknowledgments, but to promote a holistic and creative approach that moves beyond acknowledgment toward meaningful relationship and action.

It is important to understand the long history that has led you to live in this country, Canada, and to reflect on your own positionality within these histories and places. Every person’s existence has been shaped through relationships to land, community, and lived experience. Thoughtfully reflect on your positionality.

The recognition of land is a formal declaration that recognizes and respects Indigenous peoples as the traditional ancestors of the land and the enduring relations that exist between Indigenous peoples and our traditional territories. We call on individuals to recognize the traditional Indigenous peoples and our lands. This is very significant, we, as Indigenous nations and non-Indigenous allies, I urge all of you to reconnect with the lands in a meaningful way. Going for a walk at your park, recognize the Indigenous peoples that lived on that land, what was their story?

From the words of my grandfather Master Carver and Elder Jackson Robertson, “we had our own way, we knew how to take care of the land, we knew how to respect the land” (Anderson, 2026). The W̱SÁNEĆ and Kwakiutl peoples that live on Vancouver Island in British Columbia developed our own systems of knowledge and understanding of our ecology, which are representative of life in symbiotic relationships with the land and water of our traditional homelands. This intimate knowledge of the land and its relations with it is reflected in the language, including many words and concepts which have no English equivalent. The language is the voice of the land and is rooted in this meaningful connection.

The relationship our peoples have with the land is a relationship of reciprocity and respect, in which the land feeds and nourishes our people, maintains us, and cultivates the land through culture and ceremonies. The deep relationship between nations and land can be described as a connection between spirit and Creator. For the W̱SÁNEĆ and Kwakiutl peoples, the relationship with the land is a spiritual connection that must be recognized and protected.

A special note: Remember that when I am talking about the spiritual connection of Indigenous people with the land. Each nation has its own unique relationship with the land, so we need to recognize that each Indigenous community is unique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp3cu0QPryw

References

Anderson, A. (2026, May 23). Master Carver and Elder Jackson Robertson Wisdom Shared. personal.