In early September, Study Canada K-12 hosted an event called “The Indigenous land you live on: going beyond land acknowledgements”. Christine McRae, executive director of Native Land Digital held a conversation centered around Native-Land.ca, a website and app that allow users to enter their location and reveal the Indigenous territories upon which they stand. The webinar was open to the public but geared towards educators, who can use the tool to engage their students with topics of Indigenous land and land rights. There is an accompanying blog and teacher’s guide that further encourage discussion and exploration of Indigenous land topics and reconciliation. As commitments to and interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion increase, this digital tool gives people a way to learn more deeply about the history and the importance of the land they use to live, work, and play.
Christine is an Omàmìwininì Madaoueskarini Anishinaabekwe (a woman of the Madawaska River Algonquin people), and belongs to the Crane Clan. Christine’s work is based in telling the true history of Indigenous people, particularly those belonging to the Algonquin Nation.
The event was sponsored by the Canada Community of the National Council for the Social Studies, comprised of the nation’s two National Resource Centers on Canada: the Pacific Northwest National Resource Center (NRC) on Canada (Canadian Studies Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington and Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University) and the Northeast NRC on Canada (the Canadian-American Center, University of Maine, and the Center for the Study of Canada, State University of New York at Plattsburgh).