Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge this sacred land on which we stand today as a community; the land which provides an immediate home for those currently living in encampments. This land has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. It is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River.
The Dish With One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers, have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect.
The “Dish” represents the land colloquially referred to as southern Ontario (from the Great Lakes to Quebec and from Lake Simcoe into the U.S.). We all eat out of the Dish – all of us that share this territory – with only one spoon. That means we have to share the responsibility of ensuring the dish is never empty; which includes, taking care of the land and the creatures we share it with.
Today, the meeting place of T’karonto is also now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples from across Turtle Island, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory. Additionally, we acknowledge that we continue to live on stolen land taken via the forced removal of First Nations communities. We state that standing in solidarity with Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island starts with working towards the return of unceded lands; the acknowledgement and education of past and present human right violations against Indigenous communities by the Crown; and the end of genocidal violence against Indigenous peoples and the nations beyond number whose names we no longer remember because of colonialism. We ask that you honour them by caring for this land, and their descendants, by and supporting Inidgenous land defenders in the fight for sovereignty and liberation.