Hello,

While we meet and work in Thunder Bay & Region, we wish to acknowledge that the Thunder Bay and District Coordinating Committee to End Woman Abuse and all of our members are situated on the traditional land of the Anishnabek People — as signatory to the Robinson Superior Treaty of 1850. We wish to recognize the contributions that the Métis, Inuit, and other Indigenous peoples have made and continue to make. The footsteps of their ancestors have walked these lands for millennia, and we are grateful for their stewardship. We recognize this is only one small step towards reconciliation, and the mere acknowledgement of injustice does not absolve us from the responsibility of caring for the land, creating respectful relationships or restoring the power and authority to those who have always understood this as a sacred duty. Our work within individual organizations, and collectively as a committee, has demonstrated that effects of colonialism are still creating harm, systemic racism and sexist ideologies persist.  We try to choose our words carefully to recognize and validate these difficult experiences; learn from and with all people identifying as women we come to know; and shape our actions to resist the ongoing violence against Indigenous people in our community and across this country. We are committed to accountable anti-racism, to listening and learning from people who are the experts of their own experiences; and we remain committed to directing our privilege and power toward an equitable future.