LAND LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS BY NAJ SIRITSKY, RSW
When I first arrived in Mi’kma’ki, after years of living in
acknowledgment praxis has provided us with opportunities
Shawnee, Cherokee, Osage, Seneca-Iroquois, Miami, Hopewell
to learn and grow in our organizational and professional
and Adena land (now also called Kentucky), I was deeply
commitment to working toward reconciliation. With
struck by the practice of land acknowledgments which is
each conversation and each iteration, we reaffirm our
almost nonexistent in most parts of what is now called the United States of America. Not long after, I began learning of the New Brunswick government’s decision to prevent its employees from making land acknowledgments that reference the unceded territory upon which they are located.
acknowledgment that this is Mi’kmaw land, and the land is crucial to Indigenous identity. The land holds histories, stories, songs, ceremonies, food, and medicine. Including recognition that the land is unceded and that its original nation is unconquered also acknowledges the genocidal history and broken relationships between Indigenous peoples
There is tremendous power – and deep legal implications – in this practice.
and Canada. In preparing for this issue of Connection, our final issue before we transition to a virtual magazine that will help us be better
Every word matters.
stewards of the earth’s precious natural resources, we met with several social workers to reflect upon the things that
For the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers, the long
every social worker ought to consider when preparing to make
and necessary process of continuing to refine our land
a land acknowledgment.
Summer 2023 | Connection 17