Motion to recognize traditional territories passed unanimously

Unlike in 2018 when this motion was presented to Merritt City Council, Councillor Travis Fehr’s motion to have staff investigate an appropriate land acknowledgement has been passed unanimously.

The motion which passed without opposition read, Council direct staff to research and propose an appropriate land acknowledgement to be used at Council meetings.

“I think the timing couldn’t be more perfect, however it could have happened in the past. Now is a great time for us to do this and I just hope that it leads us into more dialogue,” said Fehr.

“I’ve been told that I have voted against this in the past, but I have never voted against the land acknowledgement, it was the idea of having it put through as a motion that I was against,” said Mayor Brown. “On the other hand, we’ve been talking about it for a few years and we haven’t done anything about it so this motion is quite appropriate to kick-start us.”

City Staff will be consulting with the local bands to script the acknowledgement.