I attended Ealdormere Coronation last fall (September 27, 2025). It was held at a beautiful site several hours from where I live, which is mundanely an indigenous community center - the Hiawatha First Nation Gathering Place, in Hiawatha, ON. Indigenous community members were present at the event, and to honor them there was a land acknowledgement and gift presented in court. I am posting here to collect the information I have found about the process, so that it may be useful to others wishing to acknowledge the local people and land at events in the SCA in the future.

Note I have no indigenous heritage; I simply want to support and respect marginalized groups that may be different from the marginalized groups I am a part of, and learn what I can about history! I am just beginning to learn how my US-based education on indigenous history is substantially different than that of the part of now-Canada that we currently reside in, and I am sure there is much more for me to learn.

I welcome feedback on this post. I don’t generally accept comments directly on this blog and don’t have my contact info generally posted, assuming that most people who find it are people I know personally - but in this case, in case it spreads to someone in a relevant community that I am not a part of, here is a link to contact me on Signal: https://signal.me/#eu/r9ovgxekWP0iAeg0KSFknmoQWaTq9yOZqnoLAPmC9D_iTq910MRFwZ0YYHHE4PMb. I also accept feedback via other means if you already know how to contact me there :)

What was read in court

(thanks to the queen at the time, Maegwynn, for sharing this text with me via Discord)

“We would like to thank the people of Hiawatha for welcoming us to this space at the heart of their community.

As representatives of the Kingdom of Ealdormere, and historical re-enactors, we seek to understand and acknowledge all aspects of our past, and aim towards a better future. As visitors on this land, we have a responsibility to acknowledge the grounds on which we are privileged to gather.

We respectfully acknowledge that we are on the treaty and traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg. We offer our gratitude to the First Peoples for their care for, and teachings about, our earth and our retations. May we honour those teachings.”

There was also a gift, and words for the Tribal Representative who was present:

“I hope today, in this place, all our peoples will find inspiration and a renewed feeling of community. I ask that you accept this gift of tobacco to help us on this journey”

What I liked about it

I liked that the acknowledgement was front and center in a late morning court, the time when most of the people at the event are most likely to be present and paying attention. In the past I’ve been told that it would break immersion in our event and be disrespectful of the extremely negative reality of what has been done to indigenous people to acknowledge these mundane concerns within an in-game LARP-ish royal court. I didn’t necessarily agree with that opinion then but I was willing to accept it when I was newer to the SCA and was invested in moving forward with something rather than continuing with no acknowledgement whatsoever. I am glad to now have proof that it is possible to do an acknowledgement in a court, breaking the fourth wall, without the sky falling.

What could be improved about it next time

I spoke with someone who is significantly more connected to the local SCA community than I am shortly after the event. I will leave them anonymous for now but may edit if I obtain their permission later to be credited. I’m grateful for the conversation we had! My paraphrase/summary (now, months later) of what we discussed in October was that this person felt that it could have been more respectful if the person doing the acknowledgement in court had leaned less on the indigenous members of the local SCA community to write the draft of the statement (the acknowledgement should come from the heart of the non-indigenous acknowledger), if they had practiced the statement more, and if they had been more actively present in the moment when it was occurring (eye contact, etc). It overall read to me in the moment as the crown being nervous / looking at notes / etc to ensure they got something really important right – but it certainly isn’t my place to decide if that is a sufficient or acceptable reason, or if it read to others in the moment as less engaged than it could have.

I also think that the tribal representatives were probably at least a little bored by sitting through most of the morning court. I wonder if there is a way to be better respectful of their time, or if they had someone liaising who was explaining to them why this mattered to us and what was occurring, to make it more interesting.