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Muskoka communities working towards Indigenous land acknowledgments

MUSKOKA, ON- Local governments across Muskoka will be giving a nod to the original residents of the area at all their meetings in the near future.

That’s according to Tina Kilbourne, who works as a project manager for the Community and Planning Services in the District of Muskoka. Kilbourne spoke with the MyMuskokaNow.com newsroom after the Town of Bracebridge developed a temporary land acknowledgement statement/.

Land acknowledgements are a practice spreading across Canadian communities. It usually is developed as a statement to be read out prior to public events, such as municipal council meetings and other civic gatherings. The statement is commonly aimed at acknowledging that the community sits on traditional Indigenous territories, unceded or under treaty.

The district has put together a working group to develop a land acknowledgment for all the communities across their area. According to Kilbourne, who is leading the group, the district has reached out to eight different First Nations who have ties to the Muskoka area, and asked them to join in developing the statement.

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They’ve also reached out to the local municipalities for their input. So far, Huntsville and Gravenhurst have acknowledgements, with Gravenhurst developing theirs with input from the Chippewa in Rama.

Kilbourne indicated the statement will be primarily aimed at usage by the district government, but it will be available to communities within the district as well.

As for any legal ramifications of the acknowledgement being used, Kilbourne indicated that there were none.

“We can say this is who inhabited the land historically,” said Kilbourne.

“But in the spirit of reconciliation and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it’s how are we going to also look at building better relationships and come to some sort of reconciliation so that we all are learning and advancing the calls to action of the truth and reconciliation commission.”

Kilbourne said the work is still in the early stages.

They’ve had commitment from the district council and the first meeting of the working group. Now, the focus is on relationship-building within the working group, to figure out the goal of the statement, the purpose of the statement, and any issues or challenges that members might have.

“I know in some areas it’s just merely to say who lived on the land historically, but I believe that we’ll probably try to move towards something that is a little bit more a call to action,” said Kilbourne.

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