Traditional Territory Dialogue – Congregational Use

Below is a Traditional Territory dialogue that is designed for use in congregations.  It has essentially been written to explain WHY we recognize Traditional Territory, whether it is at the beginning of worship, meeting or another gathering.  For example, it could be used as the sermon on a Sunday morning.

You will see two buttons below:  one is in pdf format so that the formatting ‘holds’ in transmission but it is also in Word so that it can be adapted to your community of faith’s context (unlike the other buttons, the Word document will not open – it will download to your computer; look for it at the bottom of your screen).  Research will need to be done regarding whose traditional territory on whom your congregation is meeting on and insert that into the dialogue.  Two resources to assist with this is to go to:  http://native-land.ca/  and/or https://www.ontario.ca/page/treaties   See if you can find out some background information on the Treaty or Treaties that pertain to your locale, to add greater interest to the dialogue in your context.

Also find below a picture of the “Great Covenant Chain Wampum Belt,” which is written about in the dialogue, as well as two other belts that were used in treaty making.  The belt you see in the picture is made from Lego from the “We are all Treaty People” kit that the Canadian Shield Regional Council Office has for loan (contact Susan Whitehead to sign the kit out:  swhitehead@united-church.ca).  The kit has other resources in it that connect to the act of Recognition of Traditional Territory.  The Lego belt could also be made up at the time when you share the dialogue.