MHCA adopts land acknowledgment

The MHCA has posted on its website masthead an acknowledgment it is located on Treaty One land, the homeland of the Metis Nation.

“We believe it is important to remember and respect our office, our community and our economy are built on land originally occupied by First Nations,” MHCA President Chris Lorenc.

“Our association respectfully makes this acknowledgment as part of our work toward reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples. We are fulfilling the commitment we made when we signed the Winnipeg Indigenous Accord in 2019.”

The importance of an acknowledgment is expressed well in this Manitoba Law Society article:

Land acknowledgements are a way of creating space for Indigenous peoples.  They are a way of saying “we see you, we acknowledge you were here on this land before us and we are committed to reconciling our relationship”.  Taking a couple of minutes to recognize the traditional lands we are on gives us an opportunity to reflect on and re-frame our understanding of where we are.  It demonstrates respect by acknowledging our history, which is that the communities we live in today were built on land that Indigenous peoples inhabited long before Canada became a country, and that functional and vibrant systems of Indigenous law and governance were replaced by European systems.