Land Acknowledgement

I am a settler on Turtle Island, currently residing and working on land belonging to the Wendat, the Seneca, the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, and the Haudenosaunee peoples. In addition to settling on stolen traditional and ancestral land, I am occupying it for the purpose of participating in healthcare and academic systems that were built on and continue to uphold colonial frameworks.

Many of us who are not Indigenous have settled on this land because our families wanted us to grow up in a safer environment with more opportunities. This includes me, a child of immigrant parents. It is important to me that I reflect on how settling here appears to offer opportunities. At the same time, these opportunities exist within systems that have been shaped by the ongoing displacement, exclusion, and marginalization of Indigenous Peoples.

I also recognize that settler colonialism harms more than the communities it directly targets. By undermining Indigenous sovereignty and relationships to land, it shapes all of our social, political, educational, and environmental systems in ways that limit our collective well-being. For this reason, I view Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization, and reconciliation as essential matters of justice for Indigenous communities AND essential to building a society in which everyone can flourish.

I invite you to reflect on your own positionality, your relationship to this land, and your relationships with the Indigenous Peoples and communities here.

To learn more about the land which we are occupying, as well as about land acknowledgements, visit Native Land.ca