Nassagaweya Presbyterian Church sits on land rich in the history and modern traditions of Indigenous people.
As with much of Halton region and the western shore of Lake Ontario, this is the traditional land of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
The Mississaugas traditionally established their homes on the flats of rivers and creeks flowing south into Lake Ontario; the Church’s name itself derives from the Mississauga word nazhesahgewayyong, meaning “river with two outlets”
In the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, this part of Canada began rapidly to populate with Loyalist and European settlers.
Competition for resources, inundation of old-world diseases, and diminishment of traditional hunting and fishing lands led the Mississaugas of the Credit to enter into treaties with the British Crown to obtain essential resources.
Seen by the Crown as outright land purchases, the land which the church occupies is located on the area of the Ajetance Treaty, No. 19 (1818), signed in exchange for an annual payment of £522.10 in goods in perpetuity.
With this in mind, we thank the Mississaugas of the Credit for sharing their traditional territory with us.
And Nassagaweya Presbyterian Church acknowledges the responsibility we have, as followers of Christ, to be gracious guests in this land, that we gather in a spirit of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and thus strive to be good stewards of the land, waters, plants, and animals, honouring those who walked here before us in this wonderful and good creation.
To learn more about the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation visit https://mncfn.ca/
Sources:
Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, https://mncfn.ca/
Nasagiweya Historical Society, https://www.nasagiweyahistoricalsociety.com/
Wybenga, Darin, “Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation” in The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2022, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mississaugas-of-the-credit-first-nation