Acknowledgment of the Oppressed.
Before I dive into my thoughts and ideas on supporting students, I feel it is important to say that support starts from the acknowledgement of who we are as a species, as humans, as a society, as a culture and as individuals. And with that, it is important to recognise that our students come from diverse and beautifully crafted cultures and that it is the meeting of minds and consideration of the differences and how they make us as humans whole, that truly matters.
We cannot acknowledge this without acknowledging the land we stand on. Thank you to NL First Light for providing this poignant Land Acknowledgement statement to give honour to those who came before us and have been relegated to the corners of history, through no fault of their own.
I would also like to acknowledge the Africans who were brought to the Americas against their will. I would also like to acknowledge all enslaved peoples who were forced into servitude across the planet.
This is not a political statement, this is human affirmation.
We respectfully acknowledge the land on which we gather as the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk [bee-oth-uck], whose culture has been lost forever and can never be recovered.
We also acknowledge the island of Ktaqmkuk [uk-dah-hum-gook] (Newfoundland) as the unceded, traditional territory of the Beothuk and the Mi'kmaq [mee-gum-maq].
And we acknowledge Labrador as the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Innu [in-new] of Nitassinan [ne-tass-eh-nen], the Inuit [in-new-eet] of Nunatsiavut [nu-nat-see-ah-vut], and the Inuit of NunatuKavut [nu-nah-tuhk-ah-vut].
We recognize all First Peoples who were here before us, those who live with us now, and the seven generations to come. As First Peoples have done since time immemorial, we strive to be responsible stewards of the land and to respect the cultures, ceremonies, and traditions of all who call it home.
As we open our hearts and minds to the past, we commit ourselves to working in a spirit of truth and reconciliation to make a better future for all.