Titre 1
Return to the territory: listening to the earth's memory
The beginning of the journey: understanding the eight recommendations
The Path of THANK YOU
Symbols come together: birth of an animation
Recognition rooted in what unites us
A decisive turning point: meeting an Indigenous grandmother
From reflection to questioning
Getting back to basics
Sharing as a driver of evolution
Return to the territory: listening to the memory of the land
We then studied the history of the territory where the SSA Quebec Support Unit is located: Longueuil, a suburb on the edge of the Saint Lawrence River in the Tiohtia:ke region.
https://www.oaq.com/blog/article-magazine/carte-des-territoires-autochtones-du-quebec/
https://societies.learnquebec.ca/iroquois-around-1500/?lang=fr
The Longueuil campus of the University of Sherbrooke is located on the ancestral territory of the Kanien‘kehá:ka Nation, and historically attended by other First Nations. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquoian) of the Saint Lawrence were the first known inhabitants of the territory, mainly sedentary and organized around circular villages.
They lived from the Three Sisters cultivation (corn, bean, squash), a complementary and ingenious agricultural system.
It is said that the Iroquoian peoples explained the culture of the Three Sisters as the story of three inseparable plants: corn, straight and sturdy, supported its sister bean, while the squash spread on the ground to protect the whole family and retain soil moisture. Together, they formed a community where each supported the other. It is this natural cooperation that allowed villages to thrive for generations.
Today, the community closest to Longueuil is Kahnawà:ke, one of the communities of the Mohawk Nation (or Kanienkehaka – the “people of the flint”).
Source: https://societies.learnquebec.ca/iroquois-around-1500/?lang=fr
Get Back to Basics
After these reflections and this meeting, we took a step back and understood that we must continue to be actors of territorial recognition.
The recommendations were then interpreted as an invitation to:
- act rather than write
- practice recognition daily
- adopt consistent behaviors in our way of collaborating, planning, and working
https://ssaquebc.ca/nouvelles/demystifier-la-recherche-en-sante-autochtone-deux-videos/
Sharing as a Driver of Evolution
We are happy to share this approach with anyone or any group wondering how to produce territorial recognition.
This microsite is the culmination of our reflection — a reflection of our history. We invite you to consider territorial recognition as a living process, integrated into your actions and ways of being, rather than as a finished product.
Agreement with 8 recommendations to refocus territorial recognition on the perspectives and experiences of Indigenous peoples
A territorial recognition text was drafted, based on the knowledge gathered and on the themes that guided our entire reflection: recognition, respect, humility, resemblances, gratitude, and commitment.
For the sake of rigor, we analyzed our text in light of the eight recommendations from our Indigenous partner circles. Plot twist! The exercise led us to reconsider our vision and to reorient our approach.
We understood that we were trying to respect the recommendations, but not necessarily the spirit behind the words. The real work was not to produce a perfect text, but to become actors of this recognition in our ways of being, collaborating, planning, and thanking. By putting down our pencils for a moment, we realized that our own journey already constituted a form of recognition.
Symbols gather: birth of an animation
From our reflections and discoveries, a constellation of symbols took shape: the turtle, the eagle, the sun, the circle, the longhouse, the Three Sisters, the grandmother, the Community, the river.
We imagined an animation where all this would come to life, like a breath, like a living territory. These insights allowed us to identify and incorporate other words, ideas, and symbols from the actual Longueuil territory into our approach.
Recognition rooted in what unites us
Our reflections have materialized into a handwritten conceptual visual representing a large circle, symbolizing Indigenous values and vision. In the center, a tree stands, its branches bearing fruits illustrating the actions of the SSA Quebec Support Unit:
- the multidisciplinary and patient partnership (collaboration)
- the circles of Indigenous partners (the community)
- the next generation (education)
The circle symbolizes cycles and the importance of each action in ensuring the maintenance and regeneration of resources for the seven generations to come.
The start of the journey: understand the eight recommendations
To refocus territorial recognition on the perspectives and experiences of Indigenous peoples
The starting point was the study of the eight recommendations written by the francophone and anglophone Indigenous partner circles working within the SSA Quebec Support Unit. The goal was to understand what territorial recognition truly means according to the perspectives and experiences of Indigenous peoples. For each recommendation, we identified a word, an idea, a symbol:
- the circle, a sacred shape related to Indigenous health vision
- the visual and the written
- openness
- recognition
- the importance of Indigenous artworks
- the deep role of the grandmother in the community
- the living, ever-moving character
These elements became the basis of our reflection.
A Decisive Turning Point: An Exchange with an Indigenous Elder
A key event changed everything: the meeting with Kukum Dianne Ottereyes Reid Wabinjuksh Kaayimstemot Nimischuu, Morning Star, the Voice of Thunder Bear Clan. We shared with her our doubts about how to design a fair and respectful land acknowledgment.
Rather than advice, she offered us something simpler and broader: “Land acknowledgment is not a text. It lives in actions. In a way of being. And often, it is summed up in a single word: thank you.” That was a revelation for our team.
Sound ambiance in collaboration with Joëlle Stella
Joëlle Stella is a singer-songwriter. Her music is an intimate exploration of the human experience: raw, honest, and deeply rooted in the rhythms of life and nature.
Inspired by the peaceful presence of the Northern mountains and the ever-changing seasons, Joëlle's songs offer a space where beauty and pain, joy and sadness, fear and hope can simply exist, without the need to correct or change them. Through her moving melodies and sincere lyrics, she invites listeners to meet themselves where they are – with tenderness, courage, and open-mindedness. For Joëlle, music is not just sound: it is the living expression of what it means to be human.
The SSA Quebec Support Unit paid royalties to include the song "I Remain" as part of the territorial recognition video and its distribution on the SSA Quebec Support Unit website and during presentations related to this initiative.
Source: Spotify
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Transcript
Titre 1
Return to the territory: listening to the earth's memory
The beginning of the journey: understanding the eight recommendations
The Path of THANK YOU
Symbols come together: birth of an animation
Recognition rooted in what unites us
A decisive turning point: meeting an Indigenous grandmother
From reflection to questioning
Getting back to basics
Sharing as a driver of evolution
Return to the territory: listening to the memory of the land
We then studied the history of the territory where the SSA Quebec Support Unit is located: Longueuil, a suburb on the edge of the Saint Lawrence River in the Tiohtia:ke region.
https://www.oaq.com/blog/article-magazine/carte-des-territoires-autochtones-du-quebec/
https://societies.learnquebec.ca/iroquois-around-1500/?lang=fr
The Longueuil campus of the University of Sherbrooke is located on the ancestral territory of the Kanien‘kehá:ka Nation, and historically attended by other First Nations. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquoian) of the Saint Lawrence were the first known inhabitants of the territory, mainly sedentary and organized around circular villages.
They lived from the Three Sisters cultivation (corn, bean, squash), a complementary and ingenious agricultural system.
It is said that the Iroquoian peoples explained the culture of the Three Sisters as the story of three inseparable plants: corn, straight and sturdy, supported its sister bean, while the squash spread on the ground to protect the whole family and retain soil moisture. Together, they formed a community where each supported the other. It is this natural cooperation that allowed villages to thrive for generations.
Today, the community closest to Longueuil is Kahnawà:ke, one of the communities of the Mohawk Nation (or Kanienkehaka – the “people of the flint”).
Source: https://societies.learnquebec.ca/iroquois-around-1500/?lang=fr
Get Back to Basics
After these reflections and this meeting, we took a step back and understood that we must continue to be actors of territorial recognition.
The recommendations were then interpreted as an invitation to:
https://ssaquebc.ca/nouvelles/demystifier-la-recherche-en-sante-autochtone-deux-videos/
Sharing as a Driver of Evolution
We are happy to share this approach with anyone or any group wondering how to produce territorial recognition.
This microsite is the culmination of our reflection — a reflection of our history. We invite you to consider territorial recognition as a living process, integrated into your actions and ways of being, rather than as a finished product.
Agreement with 8 recommendations to refocus territorial recognition on the perspectives and experiences of Indigenous peoples
A territorial recognition text was drafted, based on the knowledge gathered and on the themes that guided our entire reflection: recognition, respect, humility, resemblances, gratitude, and commitment.
For the sake of rigor, we analyzed our text in light of the eight recommendations from our Indigenous partner circles. Plot twist! The exercise led us to reconsider our vision and to reorient our approach.
We understood that we were trying to respect the recommendations, but not necessarily the spirit behind the words. The real work was not to produce a perfect text, but to become actors of this recognition in our ways of being, collaborating, planning, and thanking. By putting down our pencils for a moment, we realized that our own journey already constituted a form of recognition.
Symbols gather: birth of an animation
From our reflections and discoveries, a constellation of symbols took shape: the turtle, the eagle, the sun, the circle, the longhouse, the Three Sisters, the grandmother, the Community, the river.
We imagined an animation where all this would come to life, like a breath, like a living territory. These insights allowed us to identify and incorporate other words, ideas, and symbols from the actual Longueuil territory into our approach.
Recognition rooted in what unites us
Our reflections have materialized into a handwritten conceptual visual representing a large circle, symbolizing Indigenous values and vision. In the center, a tree stands, its branches bearing fruits illustrating the actions of the SSA Quebec Support Unit:
The circle symbolizes cycles and the importance of each action in ensuring the maintenance and regeneration of resources for the seven generations to come.
The start of the journey: understand the eight recommendations
To refocus territorial recognition on the perspectives and experiences of Indigenous peoples
The starting point was the study of the eight recommendations written by the francophone and anglophone Indigenous partner circles working within the SSA Quebec Support Unit. The goal was to understand what territorial recognition truly means according to the perspectives and experiences of Indigenous peoples. For each recommendation, we identified a word, an idea, a symbol:
- the circle, a sacred shape related to Indigenous health vision
- the visual and the written
- openness
- recognition
- the importance of Indigenous artworks
- the deep role of the grandmother in the community
- the living, ever-moving character
These elements became the basis of our reflection.A Decisive Turning Point: An Exchange with an Indigenous Elder
A key event changed everything: the meeting with Kukum Dianne Ottereyes Reid Wabinjuksh Kaayimstemot Nimischuu, Morning Star, the Voice of Thunder Bear Clan. We shared with her our doubts about how to design a fair and respectful land acknowledgment.
Rather than advice, she offered us something simpler and broader: “Land acknowledgment is not a text. It lives in actions. In a way of being. And often, it is summed up in a single word: thank you.” That was a revelation for our team.
Sound ambiance in collaboration with Joëlle Stella
Joëlle Stella is a singer-songwriter. Her music is an intimate exploration of the human experience: raw, honest, and deeply rooted in the rhythms of life and nature.
Inspired by the peaceful presence of the Northern mountains and the ever-changing seasons, Joëlle's songs offer a space where beauty and pain, joy and sadness, fear and hope can simply exist, without the need to correct or change them. Through her moving melodies and sincere lyrics, she invites listeners to meet themselves where they are – with tenderness, courage, and open-mindedness. For Joëlle, music is not just sound: it is the living expression of what it means to be human.
The SSA Quebec Support Unit paid royalties to include the song "I Remain" as part of the territorial recognition video and its distribution on the SSA Quebec Support Unit website and during presentations related to this initiative.
Source: Spotify