ACTIVISM

I would like to acknowledge that as a Black person I must first reconcile as a stolen person on stolen land. I am presently situated in Tiohtià:ke, later colonized as Montreal, Quebec, on the unceded Kanien'kehá:ka traditional territory. I would also like to acknowledge that a great deal of the work I do is based in N’Swakamok, later colonized as Sudbury, Ontario, the unceded land of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek & the Wahnapitae First Nations.

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I recognize that reconciliation does not begin and end with a land acknowledgment and in fact, as an aspiring scholar, truth and reconciliation includes an active decolonization of the academia, uplifting Indigenous ways of learning and teaching, as well as unlearning settler-colonial state ways of living and aiding in the ongoing battle for Indigenous rights, access to clean drinking water, land back and the end of numerous ongoing oppressive practices being imposed on the Indigenous peoples of this land.

I likewise acknowledge the legacy of slavery in our country and the enslaved African people whose labour was exploited for generations to help establish the colonial lands we now call Canada. The end of slavery was followed by a series of discriminatory and repressive practices and laws such as segregation, redlining, disproportionate acts of police and state violence, systemic oppression in our educational, governmental institutions and a plethora of other ongoing forms of anti-Black racism. I recognize the remaining harm of colonialism and white supremacy that is present in our society