"What does it mean, or what has it meant, to live on this Indigenous territory?" 

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Ann Marie

So firstly, I want to say I'm very grateful to be welcomed to these territories of the Anishinaabe, and the Haudenosaunee peoples, and the Neutral peoples. I felt welcome and blessed since I arrived here in 2016. Coming from the East, Mi'kma'ki are the eastern door of the Wabanaki Confederacy. And so on my father's side, we were refugees from the War of 1812. So in essence, my enslaved ancestors escaped, fought for the British in the War of 1812, and via New York, came to Nova Scotia 400 years ago. Or so, you know, like 200 years before that, but Black people have been in Nova Scotia for over 400 years through enslavement, through freedom-seeking, and through exploration.  It's kind of a complex thing to be both African-Nova Scotian with the history of 400 years in First Nation Mi'kmaq, who have been on the land from time immemorial. And what that means for not only a Mixed Blood person, but also Indigenous and Black solidarity, in fighting what I consider to be the common enemy of white supremacy, the white man. And so I grew up with that. Sometimes attention, sometimes not attention, because people whose ancestors who came from various waves, Black people who came considered themselves to be Indigenous Black, in a sense, and using that terminology, which to me is incorrect, because the Indigenous peoples are the first or the First Nations Mi'maq people. So it's a complex history to come from and to come here and then to learn about how, again, fighting for one side or the other, I guess, to the British in this case, and, and the Haldeman tract, and what that meant for various nations coming together in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Anishnaabe people who were already here, it's just a lot of history and understanding how the peoples are on the land now. It's kind of a convoluted way of saying this, but it's a lot of history that is somewhat complex, and needing to learn I'm very grateful that there are elders and knowledge keepers who share with me their teachings and understanding how to be on these lands in this territory. Yeah, but I still am from Mi'kma'ki.