This Stolen Land

I live in so-called Canada, on land that was stolen from Indigenous Peoples who lived here for thousands of years before colonization. The city I live in, “Toronto”, has been the traditional land of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinabek, Algonquin, Haudenosaunee, Odawa, Chippewa and Huron-Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples.

The random lottery that is birth has assigned me the identity of white, CIS, straight woman and because of this I’ve had little trouble fitting into, and benefitting from, the hetero-normative, Euro and Christian-centric, and ablist worldview that I’ve been conditioned to see as “normal”. I’m trying to untangle myself from the many systems designed to keep people that look like me up, while pushing black, brown, Indigenous, disabled, poor, fat, trans, LGBTQ+, women and so many others down. I see all humanity, and all injustice, as interconnected.

Since humans made up the violent, greed-driven and inhumane systems that govern and dictate the quality of people’s lives (police, prisons, unchecked capitalism etc) we humans can come up with something better instead. Nothing needs to remain the same simply because that’s the way it’s always been. A better world is possible where everyone can live well and with dignity but we need to use our imagination more. I believe collective action is always better than good-intentioned individual acts, which is why I try to channel my efforts into the work that Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Toronto is doing. If you too are a white person wanting to show up in concrete ways for racial justice, I invite you to join us. Get in touch with me directly and I can help get you set up.