Land Acknowledgement: Beyond the Recital – Learning Through Action.
reflection
Take a seat. The room is already talking.
At BBPN, we believe land acknowledgement is more than a ceremonial statement. It is an invitation to learn, reflect, and build meaningful relationships with Indigenous Peoples and communities.
Through our Community of Practice, we invite members and partners to turn shared learning into meaningful action.
There is no prerequisite. Come curious, learn together, and carry it forward.
“Acknowledgement without action is a form of erasure dressed in ceremony.” — Graduate Student Reflection, Winter 2026
It happens at the start of almost every gathering in Canada now. Someone steps to the front, clears their throat, and reads. The names come out carefully: Wolastoqiyik. Mi’kmaq. Peskotomuhkati. Turtle Island. Unceded territory. The room nods. The land acknowledgement is complete. And then the event proceeds as if the words were never spoken.
At gatherings across Canada, land acknowledgements have become an important way of recognizing Indigenous Peoples and their enduring relationships with their traditional territories. Depending on where we gather, we hear the names of the Wolastoqiyik, Mi’kmaq, and Peskotomuhkati Peoples, among others. The words are spoken with respect, and the event continues. Yet an important question remains: What happens after the acknowledgement?
Do we carry those words into our everyday decisions, professional relationships, businesses, and community activities? Do they inspire us to learn more, connect with others, or contribute to meaningful change?
a Call to action
From Acknowledgement to Understanding
A land acknowledgement goes beyond ceremony. Through shared learning and meaningful relationships, BBPN encourages its community of practice to turn words of respect into action toward reconciliation.
Indigenous Peoples have maintained deep connections to their lands, cultures, and traditions for generations. In New Brunswick, where BBPN’s journey began, we recognize the Wolastoqiyik, Mi’kmaq, and Peskotomuhkati Peoples, whose histories and enduring relationships with the land continue today. The Peace and Friendship Treaties remind us that these relationships carry ongoing responsibilities.
As we show up daily in our communities as individuals, professionals, youth, business owners and allies, so does our opportunity to learn about the Indigenous Peoples and histories of the communities we engage with.
Understanding the land is one step. Turning that understanding into action is another.
We thank you for stopping by and invite you to explore five meaningful actions that can help us move beyond acknowledgement toward learning, respectful relationships, and reconciliation.
01
Know whose land you are on
Start at native-land.ca and look up the city or town where you live, where you work, and where your children go to school. In New Brunswick, you will find the Wolastoqiyik, Mi’kmaq, and Peskotomuhkati peoples, whose connection to this land stretches back thousands of years and continues today. That knowledge shouldn’t stay on a screen. It should change how you move through the day.
02
Travel to an Indigenous community
This is not tourism. This is relationship. Seek an invitation. Arrive as a learner. Sit with Elders and knowledge keepers. Listen more than you speak. The wisdom held in Indigenous communities in New Brunswick cannot be found in a Google search or a government website. It lives in people, in ceremony, in the land itself. You have to go to it.
03
Read
Pick up a book by an Indigenous author. Let their words shape how you see this land and its history. There is a vast body of Indigenous scholarship, literature, and storytelling that most Canadians have never encountered. That is not accidental. It is the result of systems that have long privileged certain knowledge over others. Choosing to read is a small but real act of rebalancing.
04
Care for the land
Stewardship is not symbolic. Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island have long understood that the health of the people and the health of the land are inseparable. Join a land care initiative. Support Indigenous-led environmental work in New Brunswick. Make choices in your daily life that reflect a belief that the land matters, not as resource, but as relation.
05
Engage
Attend Indigenous-led events. Buy from Indigenous businesses. Amplify Indigenous voices in your professional and social networks. Show up when it is inconvenient. Speak up when it costs something. Reconciliation only happens in relationship, and relationship requires showing up.
Your Starting Point
Start with the Map
Every good course gives you something to do. Your first task: open the map, find where you are, and read the name of the people whose territory you are on. Native Land Digital maps Indigenous territories, languages, and treaties across Turtle Island. Below are the three nations whose land covers New Brunswick. Each card takes you directly to their territory. This is not homework. This is the beginning of a longer relationship.
Native Land Digital is an Indigenous-led initiative. The maps do not represent official or legal boundaries.
Shared Ground
The Black and Indigenous Connection
As Black professionals and business owners, BBPN understands what it means to have your history minimized, your knowledge dismissed, and your presence treated as conditional on land where you have always belonged. Our histories of displacement, resistance, and survival are not identical to those of Indigenous peoples, but they are connected.
Black-Indigenous solidarity is not a slogan for us. It is a practice. At our events, we intentionally create space for Indigenous voices, vendors, and storytellers. We do this because the liberation and dignity of one people cannot be built on the erasure of another.
Treaties of Peace and Friendship
This territory was never surrendered.
The Treaties of Peace and Friendship, first signed with the British Crown in 1726, did not deal with the surrender of lands and resources. They recognized Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik title and established the foundation for an ongoing relationship between nations. That relationship continues today, and it includes us.
As we conclude, this reflection brings us back to where part of this learning journey began. During Black History Month in 2025, insights from a student’s graduate-level coursework on Indigenous education, knowledge, and relationships with the land were shared through a BBPN community presentation. What began as an academic learning experience became an opportunity to connect Indigenous perspectives with broader conversations about identity, belonging, respect, and shared responsibility. The lesson remains relevant beyond the classroom: acknowledgement is a beginning, but meaningful understanding grows through learning, relationships, and action.
Continuing the Conversation | Moncton, November 27–28, 2026
Meaningful learning grows through the relationships we build, the conversations we share, and the actions we take. What we learn matters most when it shapes how we treat others and the choices we make. At BBPN, we see each gathering as another opportunity to put that understanding into practice.
We welcome opportunities to continue these conversations through shared learning, respectful dialogue, and community engagement, and as we gather for the BBPN ACCESS Small Business Saturday Pioneer BIPOC Fairs in Moncton on November 27 and 28, 2026, we look forward to connecting with entrepreneurs, professionals, community members, and partners who share an interest in building inclusive and meaningful relationships.
If you are an Indigenous community member or leader, we welcome your presence, your partnership, and your voice.
For any inquiries: events@bbpn.ca or communications@bbpn.ca
“The acknowledgement is not the end.
What follows is where our actions begin.”
Beyond the words, take action. Join our community, where learning continues, relationships grow, and every voice has something to contribute.
