Acknowledgment and the
Importance of Unforgetting
May 2021, in Kamloops BC, Canada, 215 unmarked graves were found at the site of an old residential school. This discovery thrust a tragic, and all too often forgotten part of the Canadian story, back into the current consciousness of Canadians. What was reawakened for many of us, however, was a painful story that has never left the hearts and minds of Canada’s indigenous people. Starting in the 1800s, and continuing into the 1990s over 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their homes and communities, by the government of Canada, and placed in residential school largely run by the church.[1] “For over a century, the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy was to eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights; terminate the Treaties; and through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada. The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this policy, which can best be described as “cultural genocide”.[2]
The uncovering of the unmarked graves in Kamloops set in motion efforts to examine the sites of other residential schools with hopes of finding the over 4000 students who died and who’s deaths were deliberately hidden and forgotten by those who ran the schools. Graves continue to be found, and every time our nation is confronted with a painful part of our story. [3] While these discoveries serve the ongoing process of grief and healing in Indigenous communities, at the same time they call many ‘settlers’[4] to the important work of what Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz calls ‘unforgetting.’ As we begin to unforget, we are quickly confronted not only with the history of residential schools, but with the pervasive theology, worldview, and actions of settlers that made way for the injustice of cultural genocide. This unforgetting rightly leads to a question of action. What do we do? How do we respond?
The desire to contribute in a meaningful way to the healing work of truth and reconciliation has led many to the practice of Land Acknowledgment. For example, I recently worked on a certificate of mediation and conflict resolution at a local college. Our professors started every class by acknowledging that we were on the unceded land of the indigenous peoples who traditionally called the geographic area home. While the act of Land Acknowledgment seemed nice, I was left feeling a bit confused and frustrated. The words of acknowledgment often felt uninformed and disconnected from the peoples being acknowledged, and I was left wondering what the purpose and impact of such an action was. Acknowledgment is an important step in the process of reconciliation, but my experience of land acknowledgments has often felt quite rote and shallow.
As an Anglican priest, the process of unforgetting has impacted me in a deep way not only as a Canadian but too as a leader in the church. The story of our shared history with Indigenous peoples awakens me to a responsibility both personally and corporately. In July of 2021 Pastor Ken Shigematsu, at tenth church in Vancouver, BC, wrote an article for Faith Today entitled “Why we do a land acknowledgment in my church.”[5] The article caused me to wonder, as an Anglican Church in a nation acutely being invited into the important work of ‘unforgetting’, should we engage in the specific practice of land acknowledgment? This specific question has started a profound journey for me into uncomfortable, arresting, and painful places. It has at the same time, brought about seeds of hope and a renewed awe at the power of God in the place of truth and reconciliation. The scriptures remind us that “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”[6]
This paper started as an attempt to answer specific questions about the place and purpose of Land Acknowledgments in the Church. In it, I will attempt to make a case for the importance of acknowledgment grounded in the conviction that the church, by its very nature, should be relationally engaged with indigenous peoples in a journey of truth and reconciliation – a journey to which our Indigenous communities relentlessly invite us.
In 2008 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada was established and mandated to undergo the incredible work of 1. “Revealing to Canadians the complex truth about the history and the ongoing legacy of the church-run residential schools and 2. to “guide and inspire a process of truth and healing, leading toward reconciliation within Aboriginal families, and between Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginal communities, churches, governments, and Canadians generally.”[7] The TRC carried out this work over six years, holding events across the country designed to ‘gather statements’ in a way that invited both Indigenous peoples to be heard and all Canadians to listen.
The work of the TRC was an in-depth and inspiring example of what Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz has called ‘unforgetting’. In her book “Becoming Kin – An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future” Patty Krawec explains that “unforgetting is the process of reclaiming that knowledge – of moving these truths that our society holds silently out to where we can articulate them and examine them.”[8] In an interview with Mary Hynes of CBC’s Tapestry about her book Krawec explains her deliberate use of the term ‘unforgetting’ as opposed to remembering.[9] The concept of unforgetting suggests a deliberateness of forgetting that has often marked this part of our collective story. To unforget is to both take responsibility for the conscious act of forgetting and to commit to the work of intentionally rejecting that deeply engrained tendency to forget by the act of unforgetting. Krawec encourages us to consider that we will “find our way forward by going back” suggesting that it is in the act of unforgetting that the resulting truth makes possible the healing and transformation that we so desperately need.
When settlers came to Turtle Island – now known as North America – they came emboldened by what has come to be known as the doctrine of discovery. “From the mid-fifteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, most of the non-European world was colonized under the Doctrine of Discovery. It originated in a papal bull issued in 1455 that permitted the Portuguese monarchy to seize West Africa and enslave the inhabitants.”[10] In short, the Doctrine of Discovery extended permissions to European powers to conquer the lands of non-Christians in the name of Christ. This doctrine, retained by the Anglican church in the Reformation, “created the political and legal justification for European colonists to seize lands already occupied by people and, among other abuses, take Indigenous children out of their families, put them in residential schools and essentially tell them, “The Indian in you needs to be killed.”[11]
To faithfully walk out the ‘ministry of reconciliation’ that Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5 to be a part of our identity as the Church, we must engage in the entirety of what it takes to experience true reconciliation. An important element of reconciliation is the act of forgiveness, but having begun the work of unforgetting many are quick to compulsively jump to this step. The unforgetting stirs grief and a right sense of sadness and guilt, and the desire to exit these places often moves us to premature action intended to alleviate our discomfort.
When the unmarked graves of children were exposed in the summer of 2021, people were understandably upset. Across Canada, Indigenous people took time apart to grieve these little ones. We lit fires and held ceremonies. Settlers also felt bad, but there wasn’t anything they could do with their grief, and so they wanted to rush to reconciliation, they wanted to rush to apology and forgiveness.” “Rushing toward reconciliation without both parties being fully prepared often results in more harm, particularly when those rushing to repair are part of the dominant society, the settler class with the most political and social power.”[12]
If our desire is for the healing and transformation that is found in true reconciliation, we must slow down and start with truth.
In his book Exclusion and Embrace – A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation”, Miroslav Volf speaks of the essential nature of truth in the journey from Exclusion to Embrace. He anchors this idea in the ultimate act of Christ reconciling man to God in His death and resurrection. On the cross, Christ in no way dismisses or forgets the injustice of sin but embraces it as fully as it has ever been embraced. In the Eucharist then, Volf points out that we participate in the action of unforgetting. “What we have come to know we must remember, and what we remember we must tell. ‘For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11.26).”[13] The same gospel truth by which we are reconciled to God, and our faithful acknowledgment of it in the Eucharist, becomes the foundation on which we are reconciled and from which we exercise the ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, the ministry of reconciliation must be marked by truth-telling and the work of unforgetting where we are tempted to forget. As the people of God, we should not fear truth, but having experienced the healing and transformation made possible when truth is embraced should lead with a confident humility anchored in the conviction that the truth will in fact set us free.[14]
The final report of the TRC was the result of years spent sitting and listening. In cities across the country, space was made for thousands of Indigenous people to share their stories, and their sharing will ever be a gift to those of us who seek to unforget. Having listened to these stories and worked to recover documentation from the church and government, the TRC crafted a list of 94 calls to action – four of which directly address the Church.[15] These calls to action speak to the importance of action in response to truth-telling. The unforgetting is a place to start, but it intrinsically elicits a response. Having discovered unmarked graves, or coming to understand that we are living and worshipping on stolen land, solicits the unavoidable question of what we might do in response. “Knowing adequately is not just a matter of what eyes, ears, and mind do, but also of what the ‘heart’ does, not just a matter of perception but also of habits and practices.”[16]
There is a short but powerful video circulating the internet that came up several times in my research. This two-minute video from Baroness Von Sketch spoofing the use of empty land acknowledgements resonated with me – causing me to laugh and feel deeply uncomfortable all at the same time.[17] In the sketch after giving a Land Acknowledgment before the commencement of a theatre production, the MC is confronted by an audience member who wonders what she should be doing in response to the acknowledgment. “Should we go?” the audience member asks. “Are a portion of the proceeds from tonight going back to the Indigenous people?” In short, what do I do with the truth I have just heard? In an article by Carol Arnold titled “The art and heart of land acknowledgments,” she speaks of one Indigenous man’s regret at having crafted a land acknowledgment for Ryerson University. Hayden King “came to realize his good intentions had given way to a rote, tick-the-box set of practices that became meaningless.”[18] Arnold goes on to give some insight into some essential work that serves to guarantee a land acknowledgment is meaningful.
It is a common experience in our world today, that having collectively identified injustice, a culturally informed response ensues – often accompanied by a profound pressure to embrace the culturally prescribed response. In addition to the historically familiar means this cultural pressure often takes, the use of social media in our current time has heightened that pressure exponentially. Hashtags like #metoo and #blacklivesmatter, or the turning orange of TikTok and Instagram profile pictures have served to rally people in response to injustice, serving as a form of solidarity with those suffering injustice. At the same time, these campaigns have often led to responses on the part of individuals and organizations that have skipped the process of engaging with the issues resulting in practice that is questionably void of meaning or intention.
The Church is not immune to this type of pressure, and at times has taken action that may be more culturally informed and motivated than it is gospel-formed. Stopping to ask the question of whether a church should or should not have a land acknowledgment is not an attempt to avoid the practice. It does, however, stem from the desire to not blindly follow the lead of culture but to humbly consider the practice in a meaningful and gospel-informed way. If a church is to involve a land acknowledgment in their services, I would hope it would not simply be an empty re-enactment of the Baroness Von Sketch video.
While we do not want to take action that mindlessly follows cultural norms without considering their kingdom solidarity, a fear of empty or culturally pressured response must never become an excuse for inaction in the place of injustice. As the people of God, we are always called to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”[19] As those who have experienced the unmerited and complete forgives of God, we are always called to be those who walk in humble and authentic repentance where we have sinned. Too often, in the face of injustice, especially injustice committed in the name of Christ, the Church has given itself to the practice of forgetting. In the act of forgetting we have not only forgotten the injustices that mark our stories, but we have tragically lost sight of one another. Thus, to unforget must involve an embrace of others. Integral to the process is the art of listening and seeing unto the rediscovery of others that by way of healing and transformation can lead to reconciliation. Put another way, relationship is the soil in which reconciliation is cultivated.
Patty Krawec extends an invitation to this soil of relationship using the concept of Kin. To those who are willing to engage in the work of unforgetting, she says: “there is no magic bullet. No single book you can read, no one podcast to listen to, no perfect Twitteratia to follow, no percentage you can donate, and no amount of time you can spend outside in nature will put things right. We have to build relationships.”[20] In her book, Krawec shares a story that has come to be known as the Two Row Wampum Treaty. It tells of an agreement between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and Dutch settlers in 1613. The treaty was marked by the giving of a Wampum belt on which two purple rows of beads ran parallel representing the two peoples. The belt also had three rows of white beads each representing the way in which their agreement would be governed – namely by peace, honesty, and respect. It was a treaty that was at its core established and built upon relationship.
Genesis 4 tells the story of Cain and Able. This story is placed immediately after Genesis 3’s account of the fall and shows how sin works to separate one from another. The story begins by presenting the two brothers in their diversity: “Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.”[21] As the story unfolds this diversity becomes the place of division that ultimately leads to the untimely death of Abel at the hands of his brother Cain. In many ways, this ancient story continues to play out in the realm of humanity. Our relationship to other often becomes marked not by peace, honesty, and respect, but by hostility and a tendency to dominate where we can and eliminate where we can’t. Trouble ensues in our life together when on one hand we relate to other only considering our differences, failing to connect to any sense of solidarity. An example of this is clearly voiced in the story of Genesis 4 when after Abel’s murder Cain says to God “am I my brother’s keeper?”[22] A refusal to see our connectedness sets people against one another, ultimately making way for the act of exclusion or elimination. This tendency profoundly marks the Canadian story in which Indigenous people were repeatedly uprooted, ignored, and many times eliminated to make way for settlers.
It’s important to recognize that a breakdown of relationship does not only happen when we are not able to walk in unity with other by way of solidarity. It also transpires whenever we fail to respect the distinction that marks relationship. The temptation that accompanies a refusal to embrace other often leads to attempts at assimilation – a term that often described the intention of colonization. Based in a prideful belief that our distinctiveness is superior, we are tempted to do everything in our power to convince, manipulate, or force other into our own likeness.
The Two Row Wampum Treaty exemplifies an alternate example of what it looks like to embrace other by way of unity with distinction. The lines representing the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Dutch are both purple and run in the same direction on the same belt, signalling the unity of relationship they were entering. At the same time, the lines are separate from one another, highlighting the need for the additional three white lines of peace, honesty, and respect on which their life together is to work given their obvious differences. It is a beautiful vision and one that we would do well to unforget.
Krawec presents this third option for life together by encouraging us to see one another as kin. “Becoming kin means forming relationships that connect our communities.”[23] It is not about becoming the same, but about living together in peace, honesty, and respect. It is about recognizing both our shared humanity and celebrating and learning from that which distinguishes us. The concept of kin is about true connection and relationship, and so the only way toward it is through connection and relationship. When we sit down together to share truth – listening, seeing, grieving, sharing – we come to see that we are all related. Krawec highlights Paul’s reminder that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”[24] The invitation to kinship speaks to the places of our hearts that in any way reflect that of Cain – places marked by hatred or jealousy – ways in which we are tempted to assimilate or eliminate one another. “To serve life rather than death, the will to truth must be accompanied by the will to embrace the other, by the will to community.”[25] To become kin requires a commitment to the work of both truth and reconciliation.
A land acknowledgement is one example of a tangible step we might take into the kind of relationship that Krawec envisions in her book. While she acknowledges that land acknowledgments can often be “empty and performative” she encourages their usage stating that “at best, land acknowledgments recognize relationships, the price that Indigenous people have paid for the existence of this place and reflect on tangible things people can do.” She goes on to say that “land acknowledgments are a moment to pause and reflect on the relationship that exists between the current residents and those who were displaced.”[26]
In a “Church Resource for Land Acknowledgments,” Jodi Spargur – the founder of Red Clover[27] - suggests three reasons why a church should “acknowledge the traditional territories upon which we live, work and play as Christians.”[28] First, she cites Christ’s example of humility in the incarnation. A land acknowledgment is an act of humility by which we recognize the truth of our story and current situation. Secondly, a land acknowledgment is a concrete act by which we express our “repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery.” “Because the edicts that came from the popes in the 15th and 16th centuries were theological justifications for state action it is the task of the church of today to uproot these principles that have since become entrenched in the legal and social structures in ways that continue to oppress Indigenous Peoples.” Finally, Spargur highlights how the use of a land acknowledgment expresses a “commitment to a path of healing, justice, and reconciliation.”
The process of research for this paper commenced with a desire to better understand the use and place of land acknowledgments, and to explore their place in the life of the church in Canada. My research and reading drew me into a dialogue that has opened my heart up to a much larger conversation, and I must admit the process has been deeply humbling and at times quite uncomfortable. I have come to understand the deep work that is needed in me and for us as a church, and sense there is a great treasure to be found here. Jesus, who said I am the way, the truth and the life is a God of reconciliation, and I’m convinced that to engage in this conversation would be to find Jesus already firmly in the middle of it.[29] I am also convinced that to partner with Him in it would mean great things for all peoples involved.
Humbly, I must admit that I am still a far way from being able to say whether every church should or shouldn’t use land acknowledgments. I would, however, say that every church should ask the question themselves if only to draw them actively into the act of unforgetting.
Sitting with the question personally, I have begun to wonder what it might look like to bring the act of acknowledgment into our life as a church. In the Anglican tradition, the Prayers of the People are a time of corporate prayer in our services each week. I would suggest the addition of the following collect of prayer written to acknowledge the Indigenous peoples and unceded land on which we worship, to declare God’s heart for reconciliation, and to express our heartfelt prayer for God’s help as we seek to grow in true kinship with the Indigenous peoples who continue to consistently welcome us to the table:
COLLECT FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
Almighty God, Creator of all things, who is before all things, and in whom all things are held together: we thank you for the Coast Salish peoples upon whose traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory we worship – the q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), Máthxwi (Matsqui) and se’mya’me (Semiahmoo) First Nations. We acknowledge the injustice experienced by Indigenous people in our nation, particularly those suffered at the hands of the church, and we pray: Lord have mercy. Forgive us our sin and indifference, lead us in all truth, and teach what it is to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with You Lord God – That we might know the healing and transformative work of reconciliation in our land and in our lives; through him who died and rose again that we might be reconciled to himself, your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Psalm 104; Colossians 1.17; Micah 6.8; 2 Corinthians 5.18; John 16.13
When he was asked “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus responded “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”[30] It is the story of all of us that we have failed to fulfill this law and stand in need of reconciliation to God and to one another. As we seek to be faithful to the call of God on us as his people, the ministry of reconciliation calls us to the place of truth. Over coffee a few weeks ago I asked Jodi Spargur what it is we are acknowledging in a land acknowledgment. Her answer was simple yet confronting: “We are acknowledging that we are on stolen land.” Simply put, acknowledgment is akin to confession – an embracing of the truth – it is a declaration of the truth difficult as it may be. Whether a church takes up the specific practice of land acknowledgment or not, they must, if they are to call themselves the church, engage in the ministry of reconciliation. This ministry can only happen when we walk in love for our neighbour, engaging humbly in relationship and the work of unforgetting.
Bibliography
Anglican Church of Canada. “Reconciliation Toolkit.” The Anglican Church of Canada, October 21, 2022. https://www.anglican.ca/tr/reconciliation-toolkit/.
Arnold, Carol. “The Art and Heart of Land Acknowledgments.” BCTF, January 10, 2021. https://www.bctf.ca/whats-happening/news-details/2021/01/11/the-art-and-heart-of-land-acknowledgments.
Austen, Ian. “'Horrible History': Mass Grave of Indigenous Children Reported in Canada.” New York Times, May 28, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/world/canada/kamloops-mass-grave-residential-schools.html.
C., Joseph Robert P. 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act. Vancouver, British Columbia, BC: Page Two Books, 2018.
CBC. “Land Acknowledgement | Baroness Von Sketch Show.” YouTube. YouTube, October 14, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlG17C19nYo.
Cooper, Anderson. “Canada's Unmarked Graves: How Residential Schools Carried out ‘Cultural Genocide’ against Indigenous Children.” 60 Minutes, February 12, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/canada-residential-schools-unmarked-graves-indigenous-children-60-minutes-2023-02-12/.
Digital Native Land. “Native Land Digital.” Native, October 8, 2021. https://native-land.ca/.
Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. Not "A Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2021.
Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future. James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers, 2015.
Friesen, Katerina, ed. Stories of Repair: A Reparative Justice Resource. The Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery. Phoenix, AZ: the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition, 2021. https://dofdmenno.org/resources/stories-of-repair/.
Judd, Amy. “40 Unmarked Children's Graves Found at Former Residential School in Sechelt, B.C.” Global News, April 20, 2023. https://globalnews.ca/news/9639165/40-unmarked-childrens-graves-residential-school-sechelt-bc/.
Krawec, Patty. Becoming Kin an Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future. Minneapolis, MN, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2022.
Krawec, Patty. “When Remembering Isn't Enough, This Indigenous Author Calls on Us to 'Unforget' | CBC Radio.” CBC news. CBC/Radio Canada, November 10, 2022. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/when-remembering-isn-t-enough-this-indigenous-author-calls-on-us-to-unforget-1.6647458.
Podcast, Regent College. “Regent College Podcast: #105 First Nations and Land Acknowledgement - with Dr. Cheryl Bear on Apple Podcasts.” Apple Podcasts, May 29, 2020. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/regent-college-podcast/id1152112456?i=1000476144157.
Shigematsu, Ken. “Why We Do a Land Acknowledgment in My Church.” Faith Today, July 4, 2021. https://www.faithtoday.ca/Magazines/2021-Jul-Aug/Why-We-Do-A-Land-Acknowledgment-In-My-Church.
Spargur, Jodi. “Red Clover - Healing at the Wooding Place.” Red Clover, 2022. https://www.redclover.ca/for-churches.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act - Gov.” Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action2015, 2015. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/dripa_annual_report_2020.pdf.
Volf, Miroslav. Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2010.
Weasley, Rachael, and Katerina Friesen, eds. Land Acknowledgment Guide - On Indigenous Land. Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition. Phoenix, AZ: Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition, 2021. https://dofdmenno.org/resources/land-acknowledgement/.
Wikipedia. “Discovery Doctrine.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, April 19, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_doctrine.
[1] While the school in Kamloops, BC was run by the Roman Catholic Church, “At various times between 1820 and 1969, the Anglican Church of Canada also administered about three dozen residential schools and hostels for Indigenous children.” – “Historical Sketch for Anglican Residential Schools,” Anglican Church of Canada, https://www.anglican.ca/tr/schools/
[2] Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future (James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers, 2015), 1.
[3] Even as I write this paper the news has reported the finding of 40 unmarked graves at the site of St. Augustine’s residential school in Sechelt BC. Amy Judd, “40 Unmarked Children’s Graves Found at former residential school in Sechelt, B.C.,” – Global News, 20 April 2023, https://globalnews.ca/news/9639165/40-unmarked-childrens-graves-residential-school-sechelt-bc/
[4] Settler is a term that has come to refer to peoples who come to a land with the purpose of occupying territory and forming a new land there. – Stories of Repair – A Reparative Justice Resource toward Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery, ed. Katerina Friesen, (Phoenix, Az: Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition, 2021), 6.
[5] Ken Shigematsu, “Why we do a land acknowledgment in my church,” Faith Today, 4 July 2021, https://www.faithtoday.ca/Magazines/2021-Jul-Aug/Why-We-Do-A-Land-Acknowledgment-In-My-Church
[6] 2 Corinthians 5.18 (ESV). All other scriptures will be taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.
[7] Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future (James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers, 2015), 23.
[8] Patty Krawec, Becoming Kin an Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future (Minneapolis, MN, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2022), 18.
[9] “When remembering isn’t enough, this Indigenous author calls on us to ‘unforget’,” CBC Radio – Tapestry, https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/when-remembering-isn-t-enough-this-indigenous-author-calls-on-us-to-unforget-1.6647458
[10] Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Not "A Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2021), 32.
[11] Ken Shigematsu, “Why we do a land acknowledgment in my church,” Faith Today, 4 July 2021, https://www.faithtoday.ca/Magazines/2021-Jul-Aug/Why-We-Do-A-Land-Acknowledgment-In-My-Church
[12] Patty Krawec, Becoming Kin an Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future (Minneapolis, MN, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2022), 174-176.
[13] Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2010), Chapter VI.
[14] John 8.32
[15] “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action,” Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/calls_to_action_english2.pdf
[16] Ibid, Chapter VI.
[17] “Land Acknowledgment | Baroness Von Sketch Show,” CBC Comedy, https://youtu.be/xlG17C19nYo
[18] Carol Arnold, “The art and heart of land acknowledgments,” BCTF, 10 January 2021, https://www.bctf.ca/whats-happening/news-details/2021/01/11/the-art-and-heart-of-land-acknowledgments.
[19] Micha 6.8
[20] Krawec, Becoming Kin, 147.
[21] Genesis 4.2b
[22] Genesis 4.9b
[23] Krawec, Becoming Kin, 160.
[24] Galatians 3.28
[25] Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, Chapter VI.
[26] Krawec, Becoming Kin, 39.
[27] Jodi Spargur “Healing at the wounding place,” https://www.redclover.ca/for-churches
[28] Jodi Spargur, “Church Resource for Land Acknowledgements”
[29] John 14.16
[30] Matthew 22.34-40