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The need for an African Nova Scotian Acknowledgement 

Having resided in the region for over 400 years, African Nova Scotian contributions to Nova Scotia and Canada began over 150 years before Canada became a country. African Nova Scotians came to the province through enslavement or through fleeing enslavement elsewhere, and continue to experience all manner of structural, systemic, and individual discrimination. Until 1961, more than half of all Black people in Canada were African Nova Scotian. The Province of Nova Scotia identifies African Nova Scotians as a founding culture.

As institutions, individuals and organizations strive to recognize and eradicate systemic racism, and its historical and current impacts, there is an increased desire to acknowledge the history and richness of the African Nova Scotian people. An African Nova Scotian acknowledgement represents just one way of recognizing the resistance, resilience, creativity, spirituality and hope that has profoundly shaped our families and communities — and this province and country. 

Using the African Nova Scotian Acknowledgement 

The use of the statement is not meant to replace any other acknowledgements, especially not acknowledgements meant to recognize the Mi’kmaq and other Indigenous Peoples. 

• Use of the historical acknowledgement is suitable for appropriate contexts.
• While the historical acknowledgement is used in a manner similar to that of a land acknowledgement, it should never replace or be presented before a land acknowledgement.
• When used together, the two statements should always be distinct, with space separating them, as they serve different purposes. 

The Advisory Council has developed the acknowledgement statement as a starting point. Actively implementing strategies to address discrimination that will lead to change that empowers our community is at the heart of the Advisory Council’s work. We encourage allies to take the same approach. 

We ask that the acknowledgement be used to educate and incite implementation of short-term and long-term actions which aim to break down systemic and institutional racism faced by African Nova Scotians.