(Mural photo: Toni Hafkenscheid Photography)
CUPE Local 3732 acknowledges with respect, that our work and activism take place on the ancestral lands of the Anishinabewaki, Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga (Haudenosaunee), Attiwonderonk (Neutral), Mississauga, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and Treaty 13A, 1805/Head of the Lake Purchase.
We would like to acknowledge and thank the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the traditional territory of Anishnaabe Nation, Huron-Wendat and Haudenesaunee Confederacy for sharing their traditional territory with us.
We acknowledge that we are meeting on aboriginal land that has been inhabited by Indigenous peoples from the beginning.
For those of us who are settlers, we’re grateful for the opportunity to meet here and we thank all the generations of people who have taken care of this land for thousands of years.
Long before today, as we gather here, there have been aboriginal peoples who have been the stewards of this land we now call Halton Region.
We recognize and deeply appreciate their historic connection to this place.
We also recognize the contributions of Metis, Inuit, and other Indigenous peoples have made, both in shaping and strengthening this community in particular, and our province and country as a whole.
For those of us who are settlers, this recognition of the contributions and historic importance of Indigenous peoples must be clearly and overtly connected to our collective commitment to make the promise and the challenge of Truth and Reconciliation real in our communities and in our union.
It also must be directly connected to our commitment to work with others to bring justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls from coast to coast to coast.