Choices for Youth Hosting Federation of Integrated Youth Services Annual Convening in St. John’s

With humility and respect we acknowledge that the land, sea and sky, with which we gather today was the ancestral home of the Beothuk [Bee-Oth-Uck], whose culture, stories and knowledge have been lost forever. We acknowledge the island of Ktaqmkuk [uk-dah-hum-gook], which we refer to as Newfoundland, as the unceded and traditional territory of the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq [mee-gum-maq] as well as acknowledge Labrador as the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Innu [in-new] of Nitassinan [ne-tass-eh-nen], the Inuit [in-new-eet] of Nunatsiavut [nu-nut-si-a-voot], and the Inuit of Nunatukavut [nu-nah-tahk-ah-vut]. We recognize the ancestors of all First Peoples, the knowledge they have passed down generations, the First Peoples who still carry that knowledge today, and recognize our responsibility to the Seven Generations to come. We do so by carrying open hearts and minds to the lessons of the past, the wisdom of the present and the hope of the future.