New Resource: Land Acknowledgment Guide
The Law Society of Alberta offers a variety of free online resources for lawyers and students-at-law. We are pleased to share that a new Land Acknowledgment Guide about the background and appropriate use of land acknowledgments, along with guidance on how to create meaningful land acknowledgments, has been added to our website.
Land acknowledgements are traditional protocol used to give thanks and to pay respect to the traditional peoples and the land on which you live, work and play. Land acknowledgements are one of many protocols followed by Indigenous Peoples. Protocols are the ways of interacting with Indigenous people in a manner which respects their traditional ways of being. Land acknowledgments are an element of building relationships, mutual recognition and respect with Indigenous Peoples.
As we continue on the path of reconciliation, the Law Society opens our events with a land acknowledgment. Lawyers may also wish to use land acknowledgments for their own events, to demonstrate that they are actively thinking about what happened in the past and creating a space for Indigenous reconciliation to happen in the present and for the future. The most meaningful land acknowledgments recognize that the acknowledgment itself is just the first of many steps towards reconciliation.
The guide is designed to provide lawyers and students-at-law with an overview of the things they may consider and include when writing a land acknowledgment, including how to make a personalized acknowledgment. The guide also provides sample acknowledgments for various territories in Alberta and additional resources to help create meaningful acknowledgments depending on the territory where the event is taking place.