Saint John to have land acknowledgment read before council meetings

Saint John city council has made the decision to begin each council meeting with a land acknowledgement alongside community members singing the national anthem.

Mayor-elect Donna Reardon said Wednesday the first reading of a land acknowledgement in city council history will take place on June 14, when the new council holds its first meeting of the new term.

"This is shaping our identity of who we are, and it includes your past and where you've come from and where you want to go," she said. "You do better recognizing your past. You don't want to go back there."

On Tuesday, the city sent out a news release saying former lieutenant-governor and Tobique First Nation band member Graydon Nicholas will do the very first reading, which will also include a smudging ceremony and the singing of the Honour Song.

Such a land acknowledgement is often read before community events and asserts that the Peace and Friendship treaties signed in the 1700s did not relinquish ownership of the land to Europeans.

The release said Nicholas will be drafting an acknowledgement "that appropriately and respectfully recognizes the traditional territory in which we live and work and acknowledges the history of Indigenous peoples on those lands."

The announcement comes as the country grapples with the news of Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation finding the remains of 215 children at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

Reardon said the date for the land acknowledgement reading was set before news broke of this discovery.

'It's been coming'

In March, council approved an O Canada program, which involves inviting members of the community to sing the national anthem before each meeting of the new council. At that time, Coun. David Hickey asked to amend the motion to add a land acknowledgement.

After some discussion, council voted against that amendment. City manager John Collin said he would have a separate land acknowledgement plan before the May 10 municipal election. But, no such motion appeared before council before the end of the term.

Reardon said councillors were expecting some information about the land acknowledgement program before May 10, but were told the city needed time to consult with members of the Indigenous community.

"It's been coming, and we wanted to get it right," she said.

Neither Moncton or Fredericton include land acknowledgements or the singing of the national anthem before council meetings.

'Only the beginning'

Barry Labillois, president of New Brunswick Aboriginal Peoples Council, an organization representing off-reserve Indigenous people, said a land acknowledgement is the foundation and a starting point to reconciliation.

"It's only the beginning that we have a long ways to go, a long ways to go," he said. 

He said the next step is implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations and including Indigenous people in discussions.

Reardon said in the first few days since her election she's been trying to educate herself on the Truth and Reconciliation calls to action and Indigenous history.

"There are five calls to action that would apply to municipalities ... I'm just trying to go through some of that," she said.

She said she also asked the city solicitor to look into the recommendations and how they might be implemented.

Labillois said if the city is going to start a meeting with both the land acknowledgement and the national anthem, the acknowledgement should be done first.

"The Aboriginal people have been here for tens of thousands of years. Canada has only been a country since 1867," he said. 

Reardon said the land acknowledgement will happen first, before anything else is done. 

Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools, and those who are triggered by the latest reports.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.