LETHBRIDGE, AB – In the spirit of truth and reconciliation, the City of Lethbridge has launched a land acknowledgement video.
It’s called “Oki and Welcome to the Lands of the Blackfoot People”
You can watch the video on the city’s YouTube channel through the link at the bottom of this story.
Officials with the city say the goal of this video is to increase awareness, education, and conversation in the spirit of truth and reconciliation.
“Many non-Indigenous organizations have implemented territorial or land acknowledgements; their purpose is re-teaching the colonial claim to land, but these statements cannot be the endpoint,” says Reconciliation Lethbridge Advisory Committee member, Marcia Black Water.
She says the demographics and realities of Indigenous peoples in the City of Lethbridge are diverse. “For local Blackfoot communities, especially Kainai and Piikani Nations, there is high frequency to commute to Lethbridge – to live, to work, for choice education, to visit family, to access shopping and services,” says Black Water.