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Land Rights and Aboriginal Title

Learn about Land Rights and Aboriginal Title from the UBC Indigenous foundations website

Canada’s Collaborative Modern Treaty Implementation Policy

Learn about Canada’s Collaborative Modern Treaty Implementation Policy, which the government hopes will advance reconciliation and support the full, effective and timely implementation of all Modern Treaties in Canada.

Land back 2023

Current Events, Head, Read, This Land

Calls for a return of Indigenous sovereignty over traditional territories have gained momentum in recent years, here are three places the Land Back movement unfolded in 2023.

Share your knowledge

Body, Participate, This Land

Share what you are learning. Initiate a conversation with a friend about the importance of the fur trade

Visit Historic Sites

Body, Participate, This Land, True History

Go to a Saskatchewan Historic Site to learn about early settler, Indigenous relations, locations include Fort Walsh, Batoche, Fort Carleton

Create a land acknowledgement

Body, Participate, This Land

Integrate land acknowledgments into your meetings and events. Take time to create an acknowledgement that is meaningful to you and your organization.

Discover your Treaty Territory

Body, Participate, This Land

Research the Treaty territory where you live or where you are visiting. Learn who signed or didn’t sign the Treaty.

Take Trainings on Modern Treaties

Head, Participate, This Land

Further your knowledge by taking one of the trainings on modern Treaties offered by the Land Claims Coalition.

Modern Treaty Negotiation

Head, This Land, Watch

Discover the processes of modern treaty negotiation and implementation and hear from experts in those fields in Episode 3, Season 2 on Understanding Treaties, earlier episodes include Historic Treaties and Modern Treaties.

Watch: What are Modern Treaties?

Current Events, Head, This Land, Watch

Understanding Our Treaties created a series of videos including on exploring significant events after the first Modern Treaty was signed and how they impacted the progress of Modern Treaty negotiations today. Learn more in What are Modern Treaties?

Read: What is the Crown’s Duty to Consult?

Current Events, Facts & Figures, Head, Read, This Land

You’ve heard that Indigenous People need to be consulted when it comes to pipelines and other projects, but what does that mean? Law firm Goldblatt Partners share information in What is the Crown’s Duty to Consult and Accommodate Indigenous peoples?

Treaty Backgrounder

Facts & Figures, Head, Reconciliation 101, This Land

The Office of the Treaty Commissioner produced this Treaty Backgrounder, because we can all benefit from learning more about the historical events association with Treaty making. The document also speaks to the benefits and responsibilities of the parties in Treaty.

The Duty to Consult: 5 FAQs

Current Events, Facts & Figures, Head, Reconciliation 101, This Land

There is a duty to consult Indigenous groups when the Crown contemplates actions that may adversely affect rights under section 35 of the Canadian Constitution. But, what does this mean? The law firm McInnes Cooper tackles this in The Duty to Consult Indigenous Groups: 5 FAQs

How UNDRIP Changes Canada’s Relationship with Indigenous Peoples

Current Events, Head, This Land, Watch

The Centre for International Governance Innovation and the University of Saskatchewan Wiyasiwewin Mikiwahp Native Law Centre released this 5-minute video on How UNDRIP Changes Canada’s Relationship with Indigenous Peoples

Understanding UNDRIP and FPIC

Facts & Figures, Head, Read, This Land

Understanding the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Everyday – read excerpts from resources on UNDRIP and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).

Support Truth and Reconciliation Initiatives

Body, Participate, Reconciliation 101, This Land

Support initiatives to rename streets or change public monuments in honour of Truth and Reconciliation in your community.

What does Land reclamation look like

Around the World, Head, This Land, Watch

In this 8-minute video, Al Jazeera host Sana Saeed looks at what land reclamation looks like, and what does it really mean? She hears from several activists about the fight to get Land Back into Indigenous hands.

What to Know About the Indigenous Land Back Movement?

Body, Participate, Support, This Land, Watch

Indigenous scholar Lindsey Schneider is on the TED stage to talk about Whose Land Are You On? And What to Know About the Indigenous Land Back Movement? She speaks to land thriving in Indigenous hands and the real, tangible ways you can help return what was stolen.

Watch First Nation land defenders reflecting on Land Back

Body, This Land, Watch

In this video from the Yellowhead Institute, First Nation land defenders reflect on what Land Back means to them, and they share insight on how people can enact Land Back. In 2019, Yellowhead Institute released the Red Paper: Land Back.

Land restitution

Head, Read, This Land, True History

Use the Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative to learn about land restitution, how it relates to the Land Back movement, and how it works in practice.

Attend a workshop

Body, Participate, This Land, True History

Attend a workshop or event to further your Treaty learning. The Office of the Treaty Commissioner of Saskatchewan offers sessions with speakers, as well as the Treaty Learning Journey. See upcoming events here.

Learn the Spirit and Intent of Treaty

Body, Heart, Participate, Read, This Land, True History

Hear from Elders in Treaty Elders of Saskatchewan: Our Dream is that Our Peoples Will One Day be Clearly Recognized As Nations or read The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7 and engage in the spirit and intent of Treaties.

Working together towards Land Back

Body, Participate, This Land, True History

Learn about LANDBACK as a campaign by NDN Collective and as a political framework that allows us to deepen our relationships across the field of movements working towards true collective liberation.

What is Land Back?

Body, Participate, This Land, True History

Learn what Land Back is and see what you can do to support the Indigenous-led movement of people “returning back and finding their place in those systems of life.”

Watch: We Are All Treaty People

Heart, Politics & Leaders, This Land, Watch

The Office of the Treaty Commissioner video We Are All Treaty People features voices of Elders, leaders, government, and former Treaty Commissioners talking about Treaty.

A Lasting Relationship

Heart, Reconciliation 101, This Land, True History

The University of Saskatchewan shares information on Treaty through their Indigenous Voices Online Learning Modules – Read Chapter 7, A Lasting Relationship: The Spirit and Intent of Treaties.

Breaking Treaty Myths

Head, Read, This Land, True History

The University of Toronto shares 6 Common Myths about Treaties in Canada to help increase awareness and understanding of the numbered Treaties and their role today.

The Land Remains Indigenous

Head, Read, This Land, True History

Read To understand why the land remains Indigenous, look to history, a 2019 opinion piece in the Globe and Mail (paywall) by Sheldon Krasowski author of No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous.

The myth of meritocracy

Facts & Figures, Head, Read, Reconciliation 101, This Land, True History

Learn about the impact of Canada’s colonial history and the myth of meritocracy, in “We built a life from nothing” in Policy Alternatives.

Watch: The Fur Trade in Canada

Head, This Land, True History, Watch

Historica Canada created The Fur Trade in Canada: A Summary to share information about the vast commercial enterprise crossed the wild, forested expanse of what is now Canada, sustained primarily by the trapping of beavers to satisfy the European demand for felt hats.

Elder In The Making: Sacred Ground

Cultural Understandings, Spirit, This Land, Watch

Elder in the Making is a documentary series featuring Cowboy Smithx (the “x” is silent), a Blackfoot searching for his identity, and Chris Hsuing, a first generation Chinese-Canadian filmmaker, on a trip across Treaty 7 territory to re-discover their shared heritage. In this episode Cowboy and Chris head out to the grassland prairies. They find an ancient land marked by thousands of years of history and a complex ecology of bison, grass, and other life.

Use StoryMap to learn about Treaties

Head, Learn/Education, Reconciliation 101, This Land

StoryMap by Canadian Geographic Education is designed as a resource for teachers to introduce and to understand treaties and agreements between Indigenous Peoples, the Crown, the federal government, as well as provinces and territories. The journey starts in what is now called upstate New York, then moves to the eastern coast of Canada before going west, and final north. Topics covered include Pre-Confederation Treaties, Numbered Treaties, Métis scrip, and Inuit land claims.

Check whose land you are on

Head, Participate, This Land

A great resource for a check of whose land you are on. Text 1 (907) 312-5085 with your city/region and province/state/country you are in. It also works with zip codes/postal codes.

Water Is Life

Heart, Learn/Education, This Land

The Water Is Life learning package is a series of four lessons plans that draw on on land-based learning, centered on women’s teachings about, for, and from Mother Earth, with a specific focus on water and its connection to land and the Indigenous Peoples living on Turtle Island.

Google Earth Voyager Stories

Body, This Land

Google Earth Voyager Stories is an interactive Google map that aims to enhance understanding of Indigenous history.

Canada’s Original Place Names

Indigenous Cultural Heritage

Re:Location

Current Events, Head, This Land

Canadian Geographic and its publisher the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, created an interactive website, re: Location, as part of a larger initiative dedicated to highlighting community relocations n Canada. Learn about communities (historic and modern) that have been forced to relocate.

Help reclaim Indigenous place names in Saskatoon

Cultural Understandings, Heart, Participate, This Land

Advocate for reclaiming Indigenous place names in Saskatoon. If you have a suggestion to change the name of a street, parks, and other civic properties, you can fill out a form on the City of Saskatoon’s website.

Learn about Sakitawak IPCA

Body, This Land

Nature Canada has partnered with the Sakitawak IPCA, A Métis-led initiative to create an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) in the community of Île-à-la-Crosse, to support their efforts to ensure a traditional trapping area located in Northern Saskatchewan’s pristine boreal forest becomes an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area under Métis management.

Read: What’s in a Name?

Heart, This Land, True History

Team ReconciliAction YEG wrote a blog post on the importance of reclaiming Indigenous place names for preserving Indigenous knowledge and history. Check it out here

Read: Reclaiming Indigenous Place Names

Head, This Land, True History

Indigenous Peoples in Canada are working to restore place names and revitalize their languages after colonial policies and law sought to eradicate them. The article, Reclaiming Indigenous Place Names, from the Yellowhead Institute shows the importance of restoring Indigenous place names to reclaim Indigenous knowledge and territories.

Watch: People of the Buffalo Nation

Head, This Land, True History, Watch

Watch People of the Buffalo Nation where Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway from the Buffalo People Arts Institute tells the story of the “Pile of Bones” name of Regina, and the history of the bison across North America.

Learn about Modern Treaties

Current Events, Head, This Land

Did you know that modern treaties cover more than 40 percent of Canada’s land mass? Or that more than 70 Indigenous groups are currently negotiating modern treaties?

Learn about Modern Treaties through free one-hour online courses from the Land Claims Agreement Coalition

Learn the locations of residential schools

Heart, Residential Schools, This Land, True History

The residential school system separated 150,000 Indigenous children from their families — and the last one closed in 1996. Was one of those schools in or near the community where you grew up? You can use the CBC interactive map to find out.

Read: A Line of Blood and Dirt

Head, Read, This Land

The book, A Line of Blood and Dirt: Creating the Canada-United States Border across Indigenous Lands, covers 150 years of history spanning two countries and dozens of ethnic groups. It’s a look at the messy and often violent history of the world’s longest undefended border.

Watch: Treaty 7 Land Acknowledgment Explanation

Head, This Land, Youth Perspective

The Calgary Public Library friends Henri and Charlie teaches the significance of the Treaty 7 land acknowledgment, which recognizes the history of the lands in southern Alberta, including Calgary.

Watch Fox Chaser

Heart, Learn/Education, This Land

Chris Hsiung, the producer and director behind Elder in the Making, also created Fox Chaser, which is now available on CBC Gem.

It’s a story that will take you into the harsh winters of northern Alberta where a young Cree trapper struggles to protect his childhood dream of living off the trapline. With encroaching industrial development and increasing family obligations, this may be his last chance for freedom in the bush.

Watch it here

Learn more about honouring the land

Around the World, Body, Cultural Understandings, Learn/Education, This Land

The US Department of Arts and Culture created a guide – Honor Native Land: A Guide and Call to Acknowledgement.
It calls on individuals and organizations to open events and gatherings with land acknowledgements and provides suggestions on how, and why, to do it.

Learn about Indigenous food sovereignty

Food, Head, Health & Wellness, Kids/Family, Path, This Land

The History of Food in Canada Is the History of Colonialism

An article in Walrus magazine looks at the destruction of Indigenous food systems and asks what would it take to restore them.

Learn About Indigenous Medicines

Health & Wellness, Spirit, This Land

Alive Online

The online magazine alive offers an article on “Aboriginal Medicine: Four Canadian plants with the power to heal” by Cara McKenna.

Learn Indigenous Teachings About Plants

Food, Health & Wellness, Participate, Spirit, This Land

This CBC News article includes a short video and looks at a program at Wanuskewin Heritage Park —a walking tour of medicinal plants used by Indigenous peoples. Or read Braiding Sweet: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. “As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers.” A delicious read.

Visit Parks & Sites that Share Traditional Stories & Knowledge about the Land

Body, Kids/Family, Participate, This Land, True History

Wanuskewin Heritage Park

“Six thousand years ago, Wanuskewin echoed with the thundering hooves of bison and the voices of Indigenous peoples from across the Northern Plains.” Wanuskewin provides tours and programs that share these stories, which still echo through the land.

Paths to Explore