By Jeremy Hatt (Land Acknowledgment by Julie Read)

At the beginning of every Birding With Pride at Point Pelee, it’s important that we start the event with a Land Acknowledgment. This year, Julie Read, hike leader and volunteer at Birding With Pride, wrote a Land Acknowledgment that I would like to share. It includes a brief history of Caldwell First Nation in Essex County and ways to support and build relationships.

“I am deeply thankful to be gathering on this land, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe Three Fires Confederacy: the Ojibwa, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi. This is the ancestral home of Caldwell First Nation, who have lived on the lands of Point Pelee and the surrounding area since time immemorial. This land is also part of the house of Walpole Island First Nation. In addition, this land has been walked on and cared for by the Attiwonderonk, Mississauga, and Myaamia/Miami peoples.

I want to acknowledge that when Treaty 2 of the Upper Canada Treaties (known as the McKee Purchase) was signed in 1790, Caldwell First Nation lived on this land and refused to sign the treaty and give up their right to their ancestral home. During the War of 1812, the Caldwell people fought as allies of the British and were promised land in return, specifically Point Pelee and Pelee Island, in exchange for their service. Despite serving in the war, shortly after Point Pelee National Park was formed in 1922, members of Caldwell First Nation were forcibly removed from their homes and traditional lands here and spent decades without a recognized land base. This atrocity had a devastating impact, including the severing of family connections, and loss of language and traditions. Because Caldwell First Nation had not signed Treaty 2, band members didn’t have a reserve of their own until November 2020, when a 200-acre parcel was officially designated as Reserve land.

A wonderful way to support Caldwell First Nation is to build relationships, learn about their culture and traditions and directly support them, and one way you can do this is by attending their annual Powwow. Their 2nd annual Powwow will be this summer, August 7-10th and you can find all the details online. Everyone is welcome, but as a non-Indigenous person of course I would be mindful that I’m entering the event as a guest, and so I would practice respect, kindness, and gratitude.

I am committed to truth and reconciliation and have learned that one way I can contribute to this as a non-Indigenous settler is to support language revitalization and amplify Indigenous Knowledge. I’m very thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to start learning Anishinaabemowin with the wonderful teacher Sarah Wood. If you’re interested, you can take Anishinaabemowin classes online through the Outdoor Learning School and Store. Indigenous folks can register for these courses for free. I am also so thankful for the opportunity to learn Anishinaabe Bird Names and Bird Knowledge, thanks to the amazing Joe, Andres and Junaid of Creator’s Garden Birds. They have amazing resources that I have here with me today and that you can purchase online, and they also offer online and in person workshops.

I am full of gratitude for the opportunity to be a guest on this beautiful land today, for the opportunity to gather together with all of you and enjoy the many birds that both rest and nest here. Chii miigwetch.”
– Julie Read

Further information on the Caldwell First Nation Powwow at Point Pelee National Park will be updated on their website: https://caldwellpowwow.ca/. The Powwow will be held August 7, 8, and 9 just west of Caldwell Gas & Variety on Mersea Rd 1. Stay tuned to the website for more details.

More information on Creator’s Garden Birds can be found at https://www.creatorsgardenmarket.ca/general. Creator’s Garden Birds is made up of Joe Pitawanakwat (Founder and Director), Andrés Jiménez Monge, and Junaid Shahzad Khan who are “dedicated to regathering and the education of bird names and significant Indigenous bird knowledges, these knowledges that help us live the life The Great Lakes region has to offer, Mino Bimaadiziwin, A good life.” The trio offers talks and workshops on Indigenous Bird names and knowledge and they are great presenters. I had the pleasure of seeing their talk on Indigenous Bird Names at the 2024 Ontario Field Ornithologists Convention held in Leamington. I highly recommend attending one o f their presentations.

Creator’s Garden Birds also has two published booklets loaded with information and beautiful artwork: “Anishinaabe Bird Names of Winter Birds Throughout Anishinaabe Aki” and “Anishinaabe Bird Names of Birds Throughout Anishinaabe-aki”. Both booklets are available on the Creator’s Garden website, or they can be purchased at the Nature Nook Gift Store in the Visitor Centre at Point Pelee National Park. These booklets are “an introduction to the Anishinaabe way of observing birds – a practice rooted in deep attention, reflection, and a multigenerational relationship with the land.”