GUYSBOROUGH: The Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) will be amending its land acknowledgment to include a special group of local individuals.
The current land acknowledgment, which recognizes the Mi’kma’ki people, will be expanded to honour the Indigenous Black people of Nova Scotia, whose legacy and contribution dates back more than 400 years.
“I would like to begin by acknowledging that we are in Mi’kma’ki the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kma’ki people,” Warden Vernon Pitts reads prior to every municipal council meeting.
While she wasn’t in attendance during the municipality’s regular monthly council meeting on June 14, the recommendation to expand on the land acknowledgment came during Councillor Mary Desmond’s report to council.
The significance of the amendment is to acknowledge the three historically Black Nova Scotian communities within the municipality; Lincolnville, Sunnyville, and Upper Big Tracadie.
District 7 Councillor Hudson MacLeod was the lone nay vote against the motion.
While MacLeod advised council he has always been a strong supporter of the first Black seat on council, there are numerous different types and kinds of people in the municipality who have contributed.
“My thoughts are (with) adding just one organization or one group,” he said. “I will not be supporting the motion as it is brought forward.”
Warden Pitts disagreed and advised he would be supporting the motion.
With Desmond and Councillors Dave Hanhams and Fin Armsworthy not present, the motion for council to give their notice of intent to amend the municipality’s proceedings of council bylaw passed 4-1.