land acknowledgement
as a recording
as a text:
We, who activate this map as the dispossessed disabled artists demanding housing in Toronto/Tkaronto (ddadh), acknowledge our privilege to live on traditional territory shared with us by many nations who have lived here and cared for it before and since settlers came. We live in Tkaronto.
We acknowledge our discomfort with the 1787 Toronto Purchase, the 1805 Indenture, the 1923 Williams Treaties, and possibly also with the 2010 $145 million settlement between Canada and the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation. All these imposed settlers' concept of land ownership and extinguished rights. In that sense, we consider that we are on a territory that was never considered through an equal nation-to-nation relationship and never ceded.
We acknowledge that our work on finding our home in Tkaronto closely touches on land ownership. We largely favour public land ownership, but we acknowledge also that, be it private or public, especially in Tkaronto where the City has not started a decolonizing process, land ownership does not recognize the spirit and concepts with which the land is considered and cared for by Indigenous communities, Indigenous philosophy and knowledge.
We acknowledge that maps such as this one have served and still serve purposes of colonization. We acknowledge that the features appearing on our map, such as names, addresses and wards boundaries, which are different from those shown at Native dash land dot ca, are on this map to serve our own housing-related goal and that this goal is only so far attending to the needs of the Indigenous and Métis population of Tkaronto as our efforts to reach out to them and make sure they could benefit from our work will go.
We acknowledge to have knowledge that Tkaronto is in the "Dish With One Spoon Territory".
Image of the Medicine Wheel suggested by Alec Whitewolf Butler, one of the artists behind this map who is of Mi'kmaw, French, Irish and Afro descent, originally from Cape Breton Island aka Uni'Maki aka "Island of Fog".
information about the Medicine Wheel
image credit: commonswikimedia.org
The Dish With One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers included have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect.
The "Dish", or sometimes it is called the "Bowl", represents what is now southern Ontario, from the Great Lakes to Quebec and from Lake Simcoe into the United States. We all eat out of the Dish, all of us that share this territory, with only one spoon. That means that we have to share the responsibility of ensuring the dish is never empty, and includes taking care of the land and of the creatures we share it with. Importantly, there are no knives at the table: we must keep the peace.
We acknowledge our extremely limited capacity in respectfully enacting this treaty.
Finally, the settlers among us address our apology to all Indigenous individuals involved in the project and all Indigenous communities who are still suffering.