City of Lethbridge releases more inclusive welcoming land acknowledgment

The City of Lethbridge introduced a more inclusive welcoming land acknowledgement Friday.

A more inclusive and welcoming land acknowledgment has been released by the City of Lethbridge.

The Oki video was released in 2021 as part of reconciliation.

In July, the city made updates to the acknowldgement following structural changes of the Metis Association and to include everyone.

The updated acknowledgement is an open community resource for people, organizations and businesses to further education and acknowledgment of Indigenous peoples in Lethbridge.

“We know that everything is always evolving and changing so we wanted to just be more inclusive, because we are such a vast, diverse population here and we wanted to be inclusive to everybody and be welcoming to all Indigenous peoples living in Lethbridge,” said Echo Nowak, the city’s Indigenous relations specialist.

“I’m excited to see this change,” said Reconciliation Lethbridge advisory committee co-chair Cyndi Bester Crane, “and with the changes of reconciliation, (the) truth and reconciliation journey for everyone is a little bit different.”

Along with the updates, window stickers representing the acknowledgment will be displayed at businesses throughout the downtown.