Land Acknowledgment To Be Included At Council Meetings

Quispamsis will soon begin its council meetings by reading an Indigenous land acknowledgment.

Newly-elected councillor Mike Biggar brought forward a motion during the new council’s first meeting.

“There is a lot of effort being made in municipalities across the country to apply special attention to the unceded territories of First Nations peoples on which we live, work and play,” Biggar told council members Tuesday night.

“As a member of the arts community, it’s virtually standard protocol at festivals and theatre shows and so on that a land acknowledgment is offered on behalf of the venue owner or festival organizer or what have you.”

Council unanimously approved the motion, which will see staff research best practices for the “most appropriate and respectful statement to incorporate.”

Biggar suggested the land acknowledgment be read alongside the moment of reflection at the start of each meeting.

At the start of Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Libby O’Hara called for a moment of silence to remember the 215 children who were found in an unmarked grave at the former Kamloops residential school in British Columbia.

Quispamsis would become at least the second community in Greater Saint John to read a land acknowledgment at the start of council meetings.

On Monday, Saint John newest council opened its first meeting with a smudging ceremony and a land acknowledgment.

The land acknowledgment, which was drafted by former lieutenant-governor Graydon Nicholas, will be read at the start of each meeting going forward.