We apologize for the Department’s past complicity in colonial relations with Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island. We dedicate ourselves to forging new relationships with Indigenous Nations and communities under their guidance.
We apologize for the Department’s past violent actions and inactions with the Indigenous Ancestors and cultural items who are housed in our departmental laboratories.
We grieve at the disrespect that was paid to these Ancestors and cultural items in the many years that they were kept in our laboratories. They were inappropriately removed from the land and the sacred places where they had lain. We apologize for the failure to acknowledge or consult with living descendant populations and Nations at the time when these Ancestors and cultural items were removed from the ground, and for the many years since during which descendant populations and Nations were not consulted. We acknowledge that claiming or accepting stewardship of the Ancestors and cultural items is wrong and that it violates spirits, sacred places, families, and Nations’ sovereignties. This violence has also damaged relationships between the University, its researchers, and Indigenous communities throughout Turtle Island.
We recognize these complicities with settler colonial violence and genocide, and humbly commit to atoning, listening, being respectful and doing better going forward. We commit to follow guidance from First Nation, Metis, and Inuit Nations and communities to address the violent and traumatic legacy of genocide and colonialism that our stewardship of these Ancestral remains and cultural items represent, and to building respectful relationships with members of descendant communities and Nations of Manitoba and the other areas from which these Ancestors and items have come.
Learn more about the 2024 Respectful Rematriation and Repatriation Ceremony at the University of Manitoba.
