Our Land Acknowledgement

The Local Community Food Centre acknowledges that the land on which we live, work, and gather, throughout history, has been home to the Haudenosaunee Longhouse peoples, and more recently, the Anishinaabe.

Those of us who are settlers are grateful for the opportunity to come together, and we thank all the generations of Indigenous peoples who have taken care of this land.  We believe that this acknowledgement is important because it fairly and rightly recognizes Indigenous peoples as the caretakers of this land for over 13,000 years. We pay respect to the elders, past, present, and future, and acknowledge the presence and resilience of our neighbours, friends, and partners as members of a sovereign nation.

The land we inhabit is identified as the Huron Tract in treaty #29 which was signed on July 10, 1827 by the Crown, and recognizes the Anishinaabe people as signatories. We believe that we are all treaty people and acknowledge there is still much for us to do, as settlers, to honour this treaty and reconcile the injustices perpetuated today.

This land is sacred.  It is part of the Dish with One Spoon Covenant, an agreement between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Anishinaabe peoples to peaceably share resources and welcome in newcomers as they entered Turtle Island.  The bowl or dish represents what is now Southern Ontario.  Those who share this territory eat out of the dish with only one spoon.  That means we all share the responsibility of ensuring the dish is never empty, which includes taking care of the land and the creatures with whom we share it.

It is our hope that The Local will help guide our community toward greater harmony, and move forward together with the original stewards of this land in search of collective truth and healing.