Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge Foothills Mennonite Church is located on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising the Siksika, Piikani and Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation and the Îyâxe Nakoda peoples (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw and Wesley First Nations). This is also home of Metís Nation within Alberta, Region 4, 5 and 6. As residents of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, we seek to live, work, play and worship in ways that honour and respect the spirit of the treaty and the lives of our Indigenous neighbours.

As members of Christ’s church, we aspire to live in ways that foster peace and reconciliation.

Foothills Mennonite Church recognizes the colonial history of the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.

“Canada has a long history of colonialism in relation to Aboriginal peoples. That history and its policies of cultural genocide and assimilation have left deep scars on the lives of many Aboriginal people, on Aboriginal communities, as well as on Canadian society, and have deeply damaged the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. It took a long time for that damage to have been done and for the relationship we see to have been created, and it will take us a long time to fix it. But the process has already begun.”

- from  Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

We acknowledge that the church had a fundamental role in colonialism. Christian missionaries were often the first contact with Indigenous peoples and facilitated the advancement of non-Indigenous culture. Churches operated residential schools on behalf of the government for the sake of assimilating Indigenous children into Canadian culture. The intergenerational and ongoing damage caused by residential schools has been revealed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Reconciliation involves acknowledgement of participation and commitment to moving forward.

Buffalo Shout is a group at Foothills committed to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada. The group meets regularly to confront issues of colonialism and injustice in Canadian history, and to build relationships with Indigenous people and communities.