The Black Women’s Institute for Health’s (BWIH) team, operations and programmatic work, as well as our network, depend on traditional Indigenous territories to provide us physical space, sustenance, safety, and community to work, live, and explore and grow. Our physical office is located on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat (Wyandot). We acknowledge that these lands are covered by Treaty 13 and the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant
We acknowledge all Treaty peoples – including those who came here as settlers – as migrants either in this generation or in generations past – and those of us who came here involuntarily, particularly those brought to these lands as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. We acknowledge that these lands are still home to many diverse First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people. We acknowledge that our ability to live and work on these lands today is a direct benefit of policies of expulsion and assimilation of Indigenous peoples during the time of settlement and Confederation, and since. The harms of these policies are many and are still being felt in Indigenous communities today and our Black and racialized communities.
We express gratitude towards the Indigenous peoples who have and will continue to steward these lands. BWIH commits to amplifying the voices of Indigenous peoples and working against the everyday forces of white supremacy and colonialism present in the nonprofit and other sectors. Our work at BWIH is long-term and multi-generational in nature, and we recognize that it will be a continuous and intentional process to build strong relationships with our Indigenous mothers, sisters and family as well as connect with the land.
Our African Ancestral Acknowledgement
We acknowledge our African ancestors, many of whom were forcibly and violently displaced and exploited in the transatlantic slave trade and whose stolen labour was the basis for a large proportion of our society’s current wealth.
Descendants of our ancestors continue to be inflicted by the remnants of slavery and colonialism to this day in the form of systemic and individual racism.
Further, we acknowledge the histories and atrocities, hidden and erased, that we may never come to know yet continue to affect our daily lives. We commit to working to tell these stories, to providing visibility to our history and our future through the stories of our mothers, sisters, daughters and family.
We acknowledge the visible and invisible labour of individuals committed to addressing racism and doing the meaningful and generative work of moving us closer to eradicating racism. We acknowledge and recognize that this labour is often held and carried on the shoulders of Black women. That our labour, our ideas, our work to drive change often goes unrecognized and lost to history. We work to ensure this doesn’t continue to happen.
We recognize the difficulty and toll of this work on all aspects of health and well-being. We are forever indebted to individuals who toil to make possible a brighter future for us all.
