As Canadians move toward better understanding Indigenous history, it’s important that we learn about the complex past that lies within the land that we call home, and acknowledge those who inhabited it before us. So how can Canadians find this information?

That’s a problem Karen Restoule and Michael Furdyk sought to solve with Whose Land. The app has maps that outline Indigenous territories throughout history, residential school locations, current Indigenous communities, and treaties and agreements to help us understand how Indigenous peoples are connected to the places where we live, work, and visit.

“It allows citizens to be able to see themselves in the territory that they’re in and to connect with the people and environment around them,” says Restoule, who co-founded the reconciliation-focused non-profit Bold Realities.

Though Whose Land lets you discover the Indigenous context of wherever you are with the touch of a button (just head to the Where Am I? tab to get info on your exact location), gathering all this information and putting it in one place wasn’t so easy. It required calling up more than 600 Indigenous communities from coast to coast to confirm details and get input for the app.

Furdyk, who is co-founder of TakingITGlobal, an organization that engages youth to tackle global challenges, says that this human touch comes through in the app as users can hear directly from many Indigenous individuals.

“We commissioned land-acknowledgement videos from different artists, elders, activists, and leaders from all across Turtle Island,” he says, referring to the Indigenous name for what we now call North America. “And I think that’s what makes the app so powerful—it’s not just a static resource.”

Though the app enables you to quickly put together a land acknowledgement—a statement made at the start of a formal event that recognizes which Indigenous peoples first inhabited that site—it also urges you to dig deeper.

“It’s not about saying the right 17 words. It’s about an expression of what the land truly means to you. Even if you’re not Indigenous,” says Restoule.

That’s why Whose Land contains lesson plans on the Learning tab that encourage you to think more deeply about your own relationship to the land. Designed for kindergarteners to high-school students—and even professionals in workplace settings—these resources can help facilitate important conversations about Indigenous history and lands, and encourage people to really reflect on the acknowledgements they’re making.

“It’s a starting point for learning, and for tough talks about what land means to all of us,” says Restoule.

Illustration by Shaikara David from the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne.