Land Acknowledgement
The Mastery Workshops acknowledges that the land that we use as our home base, where we gather and operate, is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the xÊ·mÉ™θkÊ·É™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and selÌ“ílÌ“witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and grow on this land and commit to fostering respectful relationships with the Indigenous communities that have cared for this land for generations.
To note: In most cases, we reside on unceded land, meaning that it was never given, sold, or agreed upon to be shared—the land is unsurrendered. What’s the significance of acknowledging “unceded territory”?
Here’s a powerful answer from Verna McGregor, a Canadian Algonquin elder:
“It’s acknowledging that we’re still here; the acknowledgment is important—that we’re worthy of being on our own lands… There is a greater issue than what is going on today. It helps remind people that we are going back centuries in terms of what we’ve done to the Indigenous people—from the reserve system, and the residential schools, to today with Indigenous children still being removed from their families at a greater rate than the rest of the population… The acknowledgment puts what’s happening today into a greater perspective to understand historical wrongs and how that’s manifested today. Part of reconciliation is truth and honesty.”