The reciting of the board-mandated, Indigenous-informed land acknowledgement was and continues to be a part of the morning routine at the start of every school day in the publicly funded schools in Ontario, Canada, including the one that I was a staff member of. It was read by student announcers, many times stumbling on the complex multi-syllabic words and names of Indigenous communities that are unfamiliar to their tongue. During the reading, there was steady, hurried movement in the hallways as students hung up their coats and backpacks, and activity in the classrooms as teachers wrote the new date on the board or got their audio-visual cart ready for the first lesson of the day. Once “O Canada” started to play, everyone stood still, and silence was expected. Students that didn’t quite make it into the classroom before the first note of the anthem on the hollow-sounding overhead speakers had that look of despair as those notes indicated they were officially late. The anthem was then followed by what seemed like a laundry list of announcements from birthday celebrations to recess clubs, library events to reminders of appropriate lunchtime behavior.
Teachers and learners alike had little connection to the acknowledgement—what it was saying, what it meant, and our place within it.
Over time, I observed the land acknowledgement being more of a performative task than a respectful way of honoring the relationship we all have with the land. Teachers and learners alike had little connection to the acknowledgement—what it was saying, what it meant, and our place within it. This seemed to play into the way it was being shared each morning—like background noise—which may have contributed to unintentional dishonoring actions. The words were complex for elementary students to understand, and teachers were unfamiliar with the Indigenous communities being recognized within it—including me.
As a culturally relevant and responsive educator, I started asking questions: What do we know about the land our school sits on? What connections do we have with the land around us? How do I make the land acknowledgement something my primary learners will understand, appreciate, and honor? I wanted to provide learning experiences that supported the language and social studies curriculum while exploring the importance of the land acknowledgement in a meaningful way. This included learning a student-friendly informal land acknowledgement, understanding Indigenous connections to the land, and exploring and honoring the land that we share and benefit from.
Learning a Student-Friendly Land Acknowledgement
A colleague at a different school had developed a land acknowledgement with Indigenous board consultants to be used with primary learners. It was simple but honoring and effective:
We the scholars of the grade 2 learning space say “thank you” to the Indigenous Peoples for letting us learn here today.
We respect the land, the creatures, and the people.
Hello land . . . (hands touch the floor)
Hello sky . . . (hands reach up to the sky)
Hello me . . . (arms cross chest in a self-hug)
Hello all . . . (arms outstretched in front)
During our morning community circle, I modelled, and eventually students led, this new version of the land acknowledgement. Each day a different student pointed to each word as we stood and read the words together. The actions at the end made it interactive. All students were able to participate as the words became part of their vocabulary. It was a great teacher moment to see students who were at the beginning stages of learning English being able to say words orally and connect them to the words visually. For one student, they were the first English words they confidently spoke, even if their understanding of the words was still progressing.
We started deconstructing the various words in the acknowledgement: What does “Indigenous Peoples” mean? Why are we thanking them? What does it mean to respect the land? What is the land? Using the CBC Kids News online video “The Word Indigenous Explained” allowed us to understand that the term “Indigenous” means the first people to live in a place and that there were several different communities across Canada. The students were immediately intrigued and wanted to know which communities were on the land that the school was on. Through using the website Native Land Digital (native-land.ca), we were able to find the Indigenous communities that inhabited the lands we called our school home—the Wendat, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Anishinaabe, and the Haudenosaunee. The students were fascinated and wanted to know why the land was important to these communities.
Understanding Indigenous Connections to the Land
Using text has always been at the cornerstone of my teaching practice. It allows for the students and teacher to learn together about various perspectives, lived experiences, and ideas by placing the characters and/or information in the books we read in the center, rather than a particular student or myself as the teacher. Nutshimit: In the Woods, by Melissa Mollen Dupuis and Elise Gravel, shared the Indigenous author’s experience as a young child growing up and learning about the lands her ancestors have lived on since “time immemorial” (2), which they shared with other people before the land was named Canada (4). The students were engaged with the colorful, animated illustrations through which Melissa explains how important nature is to her, how First Nations communities use storytelling to explain the world around them (5), and how the various aspects of nature were used within her community. This included how the birch tree was used to make canoes, shelters, and baskets, and how caribou ate lichen, which was also used for medicine and as an absorbent material for diapers and the lining for baby carriers. The students started to see how aspects of the land were viewed, used, and respected.
The students started to see how aspects of the land were viewed, used, and respected.
The book The Elders Are Watching, by David Bouchard, was an ideal companion text to Nutshimit: In the Woods, as the artistic and watermarked images spoke to the importance of ancestors and elders and how their experiences impact who we are. It also shows nature in a very metaphorical way, which, along with the poetic language, allowed students to make inferences about the natural elements throughout the book. These texts helped develop new vocabulary and foundational understandings that would lead to the next learning experience of exploring the land around them.
Exploring the Land We Share
Our school was adjacent to a small community playground area, open fields, and a small forest area. With the mix of local trees and foliage mixed with suburban homes and gardens, the open natural space often seemed to go unnoticed—blending into the background of our lives. It was there, but it wasn’t there. We had no connection to it. The learners were coming out of the isolation and mask-wearing times of schooling during the pandemic. They were accustomed to not touching each other, sanitizing frequently, and being “careful” of where they were and what they were doing. Planning alongside a Tyndale University teacher candidate, we took our learners outside for a guided exploration of the land around them. We returned to Nutshimit: In the Woods to use author Melissa’s blueprint of taking a “nature bath” using our five senses (we eliminated the sense of taste for safety). The learners were eager to get outside, but once their running shoes hit the tarmac, they went into “recess mode,” running around and chasing each other with distinctive outdoor voices. They were not used to being outside for an intentional learning purpose. We committed to going outside daily, allowing unstructured time followed by focused time to sit or lie down on towels and remain silent. What do you hear? What do you see? What do you smell? What do you feel around you? This was followed by a walking exploration. With gloves, a brown paper bag, and a partner, they collected interesting items that they found on the ground, or they searched for items on a curated scavenger hunt list. We returned to the classroom to share, discuss, and document what occurred.
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Works Cited
Ansloos, Jeffrey, and Shezza Ansloos. Thunder and the Noise Storms. Annick Press, 2021.
Bouchard, David. The Elders Are Watching. Raincoast Books, 2003.
CBC Kids News. “The Word Indigenous—Explained.” YouTube, uploaded by CBC Kids News, 26 Mar. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CISeEFTsgDA.
Dupuis, Melissa Mollen, and Elise Gravel. Nutshimit: In the Woods. Scholastic Canada, 2023.
Native Land Digital. 2015, https://native-land.ca/. Accessed 7 Jan. 2026.
Charmain Brown is a faculty member at Tyndale University in the Bachelor of Education Program, specializing in language and literacy and creating inclusive learning environments. Her work integrates faith-informed practice, equity, and reflective teaching to support the formation of thoughtful, compassionate educators.
