Wilfrid Laurier University to explore purpose of Indigenous land acknowledgements

Wilfrid Laurier University is taking a closer look at Indigenous history in the Waterloo regionand how it isrecognized.

University officials have planned an event called Land We Areto look at the history of the Haldimand Tract andexplain the purpose of land acknowledgements.

Land acknowledgements are the statements, often before events, that remindparticipants they are on traditional First Nations territory.

Jean Becker, the senior adviser for Indigenous initiatives at the university, saidthe acknowledgements help open up a conversation about what being on that territory means.

"We have been marginalized physically by being pushed into reserves, into sort of marginalized land masses, and outside of the areas where most Canadians are living," Becker said.

"When we started doing it here atLauriermy hope was that it would create conversation. That people who previously didn't know what this territory is, that they would hear the landacknowledgementand they would ask questions."

The Land We Are will be held Wednesday afternoon in the library on WilfridLaurierUniversity's Waterloo campus.