Reflect on where you live

Regardless of where you live in Canada, you are on ancestral lands of one or more First Nations or indigenous communities. An important personal step towards being an active participant in truth & reconciliation is understanding your relationship to the lands on which you live and their historical and present-day connections to indigenous communities and identity.

• Whose territory do you live/work/play on?

• What is an Indigenous place name for the territory you live on, work in, and enjoy recreationally? What are the origins of that name and what does it say about the lands and their use? What are the origins of the settler/colonial place name?

• Are you situated in Treaty territory? If so, which one and what does that mean? If you’re not in a numbered treaty territory, do you know why not?

• How did settlers come to occupy the territory you live on?

• What Indigenous governments – traditional and contemporary – govern the land where you live?

• Who are your ancestors and where is your ancestral home? Do you know how you came to live in this country known as Canada and how you've participated in the continued settlement of these lands?