Starting with Land

Originally published in January 2025

As we begin a new term and new year, we invite you to consider ‘beginning at the beginning’. Many instructors choose to start their classes with land acknowledgments to express gratitude for the land that we all work and play on. Land acknowledgments create an opportunity to recognize our personal and professional roles as treaty partners and consider how to transform relationships in higher education contexts in Canada today. 

Consider these entry points to develop your own approach:

• As a multicampus institution, it is important to recognize and honour Laurier’s treaty partners and relationships. Explore the Peoples, cultures and treaties involved in Laurier’s Land Acknowledgement, which now includes the Milton Campus.  
• Share personal and familial connections that frame your relationship to land and model authentic engagement in delivering a land acknowledgment. Invite the class to reflect on actions that can continue their personal and collective learning journeys in support of Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island.
• Deepen your pedagogical practice and understanding of the similarities and differences between Western and Indigenous approaches to education. Engage with Indigenous scholars and literature exploring relationships to land and land-based pedagogies such as: 
  • Land as Pedagogy | Leanne Betasamosake Simpson  
  • Indigenous Land-Based Education in Theory and Practice | Mandee McDonald
  • Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit | Marie Battiste 

Watch: Pathways to Transformational Change: Indigenizing, Decolonizing, and Reconciling at Laurier

Indigenizing, decolonizing, and reconciling are important concepts, each with its own dimensions and complexities. Practices from land acknowledgements to changing how we exist as a modern university aim to create a safer and more welcoming space for Indigenous students, staff and faculty. 

As Associate Vice-President of Indigenous Initiatives, Darren Thomas has had the opportunity to engage in critical discussions with colleagues across the country with similar portfolios, and he has learned that academic institutions in Canada continue to create harm for Indigenous Peoples and equity-deserving groups. Dr. Thomas also discusses the contributions of Indigenous science, and how the contributions of Indigenous thought and philosophy may make the university safer for everyone. Watch the Recording >>

Find resources and connect with the Office of Indigenous Initiatives >>

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