Land Acknowledgement for Nawash Park
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Friends, we want to acknowledge that this place where we come together is within the ancestral and traditional territory of the Anishinaabe Nation. Long before Missionaries, Colonization or Confederation, the people of the Three Fires Confederacy known as the Ojibway, Odawa, and Pottawatomi Nations resided here as the traditional keepers of these lands and waters. They continue to live and move and have their being here.
With their ancestors Treaty 45 ½ was signed in 1836 opening the land for settlement below highway 21. In 1854, Treaty 72 recognized the Crowns inability and unwillingness to protect the Saugeen Peninsula as promised. Treaty 82 brought the end of the community of Nawash, on the western shore of the bay, north of the Pottawatomi, it was 1857.
Here and now, again and again, we give thanks to the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation and the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, now known as the Saugeen Ojibway Nation. We recognize with respect their history, culture, spirituality and Treaty rights. We long to live in peace and harmony with all the diverse people who call this place home.
