Indigenous Land Acknowledgement – For Children
November 14, 2020
Our church, First Mennonite, wants to tell you something about the land we live on…
the land where our church, our homes, our towns and cities and farms are.
We aren’t the first people to live here,
there were people here for thousands of years before we got here.
They are called indigenous people, and they still live here;
they have beautiful names: Anishinaabe, Haudenosauneee, Attawandaron.
Let’s say those names: Can you repeat after me? Anishinaabe. Haudenosauneee, Attawandaron.
We didn’t live up to the promises we made with them on how to share the land,
and it’s not been fair to them.
We have hurt the people with these beautiful names, the indigenous peoples.
We are trying to figure out how to make things right,
I am a Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. I’ve served congregations in Ontario and most recently, Alberta.