Land Acknowledgement
LIVING AND WORKING IN TKARONTO ON TURTLE ISLAND
It is with gratitude that I acknowledge the land I am living and working on is the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.
I also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit.
Heritage
My maternal great grandparents arrived here from Ukraine in 1895 and settled in Alberta to farm the land. My paternal ancestors left Scotland to build their lives in the 1900s. It is due to their dreams and their fortitude that I was born here in Canada, and for that I am grateful.
For the animals, who were here first
As I sit by the sewing machine, I gaze out the window and watch as a Red-tailed hawk glides by, searching for his midday meal.
I am in downtown Toronto (Tkaronto), and yet the wildlife is abundant.
A flock of pigeons gather in the park a block away, a second one has claimed the block on Parliament by Cole Street as theirs. I have watched a pair of Kestrels teach their fledgling to fly from the roof of a neighbouring condo building and witnessed her joy as she found her wings in the air. A group of Canada Geese have made the grounds of an empty lot to the south of me their feeding area, and a family of mice scurry through the bushes in a planter next to the street I walk down to go to work.
I have seen a baby raccoon sleeping in a tree while I wait for the streetcar and others walking the perimeters of buildings late at night. Squirrels grunt from within the cover of trees and starlings saunter about the rooftop garden of my building, clearly owning it.
A male house sparrow calls from the roof to his mate and a male house finch sings his sweet song “for the ladies”, his rosy head a bright spot in the tree. There’s a pair of cardinals I listen for whose “chip chip chip” I hear regularly and delight in spotting as I walk through my front door.
All these animals who I see from my window and during my walks, it is first and foremost to them that I give my gratitude for continuing on with their lives despite my human presence and for providing me with such joy.
For the animals, who were here first, I am working to make my step on this planet as light as possible. By continuing to learn how the Indigenous people–who lived alongside the animals long before my ancestors ever arrived here in North America (Turtle Island)–maintain a respectful harmony with them, I trust I will be able to do so, as well.
