LAND
ACKNOWLE
DGEMENT
We are all Treaty People.
Halifax Design Week takes place in Kjipuktuk, in the district of Sipekne’katik, Mi’kma’ki. This is the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq, who have cared for this land for more than 13,000 years. We gather here under the Peace and Friendship Treaties, which date back to 1725.
We also honour African Nova Scotians, who have lived, built communities and created on this land for more than 400 years, and whose history is part of Halifax’s design story.
As a design community, we treat this acknowledgement as a starting point, not a box to tick. For our first edition, we commit to:
- Inviting Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian designers, artists and knowledge holders to take part, and paying them for their time.
- Keeping every event free, so cost is never the reason someone stays home.
- Sharing Mi’kmaw-led learning resources with our attendees, speakers, volunteers and partners.
“Acknowledgement without action is just words. We hold ourselves accountable to both.”We encourage everyone who joins us, including attendees, speakers, partners and volunteers, to learn about the Indigenous history of the land they stand on and to consider how they can contribute to reconciliation in their own communities and practices.
