We want to begin our Circle with a Land acknowledgement. Such acknowledgements commemorate Indigenous peoples’ principal kinship to the land—and the fact that we have not and cannot be erased from her, our collective first mother. They’re a starting place to a change in how the land is seen and talked about.

Let me begin by reflecting on why we are we meeting in a virtual circle, and our project is called “Circles for Reconciliation?” The circle itself is considered sacred. First Nations people observe that the circle is a dominant symbol in nature and has come to represent wholeness, completion, and the cycles of life.