Land Acknowledgement used by SURJ Northland

We begin each meeting with a land acknowledgment. This was developed by local Indigenous leaders.

As a step toward honoring the truth and pursuing healing and reconciliation, our SURJ Collective has committed to open our gatherings with a statement acknowledging the traditional Native lands on which we stand.

While this land acknowledgement is not enough, it is an important social justice and decolonizing practice that promotes a change in our way of seeing that we are settlers on Indigenous land.

We acknowledge the lands we call the Twin Ports are the traditional territories of the Ojibwe and Dakota Nations who knew and know these lands by other names, who have lived, worked, played and worshipped here for longer than the people from other continents whose feet also now touch this soil.

We honor that we are able to build communities upon these lands that reflect the cultures and values of our settler ancestors because the Ojibwe Nation gave us permission to do so through the Treaty of La Pointe signed September 30, 1854.

We recognize that the treaty making process reflects the oppressive system of colonization that has left a legacy of pain and brokenness from which we all continue to heal.

One extremely painful and enduring aspect of this legacy is the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples experienced at extremely high rates in our communities in large part due to the commercial shipping ports on Lake Superior.

Let this acknowledgement be an opening for us to move beyond words into actions that fully embody a commitment to Indigenous rights and cultural equity