The Saint John Common Council chambers. Image: Brad Perry
The reading of an Indigenous land acknowledgment will start all Saint John city council meetings beginning Monday.
City staff say they have been working to find a way to recognize Indigenous peoples during council meetings following a request by the previous council in March.
“The most important component of this process is the stakeholder consultations with members of Indigenous communities,” the city said in a news release earlier this month.
Former lieutenant-governor Graydon Nicholas offered to draft a land acknowledgment that recognizes the traditional territory that Saint John is on.
Nicholas will join the newly-elected council Monday night to do the very first reading of the land acknowledgment.
The reading will be accompanied by a smudging and the singing of the Honor Song by Mykayla Spinney.
“This will be a significant moment in the history of the City of Saint John,” said the city.
Nicholas was appointed New Brunswick’s first Indigenous judge in 1991 and later served as the province’s first lieutenant-governor from 2009 to 2014.
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