The statement can be used to craft your own meaningful Land Acknowledgment. Tips for crafting a meaningful acknowledgment and other learning resources are listed below. If we can improve on this statement, please contact us at LivingCK@Chatham-Kent.ca.
Thank you to the Knowledge Keepers of the 'Culture Card Committee' for creating and enabling us to share the A Road to Understanding Indigenous Culture document.
The area now known as Chatham-Kent is the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy: the Odawa, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe. The Lunaapeew also inhabited theses lands at the time of the written treaties.
Chatham-Kent is covered by Treaty # 2: The Detroit Treaty of 1790; Treaty #7: St. Anne's Treaty of 1796; and Treaty # 25: Longwoods Treaty of 1822. We also recognize that this region is subject to earlier Wampum agreements like the Two Row Wampum and the Dish with One Spoon Wampum. As beneficiaries of these Treaties, we recognize all Peoples have responsibilities including collective responsibilities to the land and water.
Today, Chatham-Kent neighbours the Lunaapeew at Eelūnaapèewi Lahkèewiit, Delaware Nation, which is part of the McKee Purchase Treaty, as well as the unceded territory of Bkejwanong, Walpole Island First Nation. Chatham-Kent continues to be home to diverse First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples.
How to offer meaningful land acknowledgments:
Pronunciation:
Treaties:
