Acknowledgement of First People’s Lands by SickKids CCMH and SickKids CCMH Learning Institute
This is the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples and it is home today to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis people.
We acknowledge that these original peoples were nations with political, social and economic relationships with one another that predated contact with Europeans. We acknowledge the history of treaty making on which our relations with these original peoples was initially based. We recognize that we are meeting on the lands covered by Treaty #13, The Toronto Purchase.
We acknowledge that this land was occupied over time by settlers and by enslaved peoples who were not willing or intentional participants in the occupation and who were themselves displaced from their homelands. We acknowledge that this settlement did not respect the initial process of treaty making.
While we did not initiate the process of exploration, contact, and settlement, we have benefited from it, and we recognize that we are accountable today for our actions on this land and towards its first peoples.
We commit to hearing the stories of our country’s first peoples, to educating ourselves about our country’s history with First Nation, Inuit and Métis people and to understanding the cross generational impact of that history on their families, communities and cultures.
We commit to incorporating our learning into our practice as an organization providing child and youth mental health services. We seek a position of cultural humility in which we might engage meaningfully with First Nation, Inuit and Métis neighbours and colleagues in the interest of our Indigenous clients and their families, caregivers and communities.
We commit to supporting the improved access by First Nation, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families to Indigenous healing practices and to treatments that are provided in collaboration with Indigenous healers and elders whenever possible and when this is requested.
August 9, 2021