land acknowledgement

(Australia) A formal protocol in which respect is shown for the traditional indigenous custodians of a particular area through speech, song, dance or ceremony.

(UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) In Britain and some Commonwealth countries, land that is owned by the state, nominally titled to the reigning King or Queen of England, and whose use and disposition is controlled by a government within that Commonwealth country or by an official representative of the monarch.

A respectful, widely used collective term for the Indigenous peoples of a particular region — the communities whose ancestors lived on the land long before colonisation. 'First People' (or First Peoples) is common in Canada, Australia, and elsewhere as a dignified alternative to older, sometimes problematic terminology. It acknowledges the historical and cultural primacy of these communities without reducing them to a single homogenised group. Used in political, legal, academic, and everyday contexts.

(Canada) A First Nations individual who is given land on a reservation.

(Canada, holidays) September 30th; A statutory holiday in Canada, for the recognition of the cultural genocide of indigenous peoples in Canada enacted by the colonizers, especially that caused by the residential school system; declared as a law in 2020, and first observed in 2021.