Welcome to Confronting Colonization: the Work Before the Work.
Confronting colonization in our organizations is an important step in the path towards truth and reconciliation.
We are looking to improve access to resources, perspectives and learning opportunities to support settler-led organizations in addressing colonial underpinnings in their organizations.
Where to begin?
Share a resource – We are gathering relevant resources in decolonization, diversity/inclusion and Indigenous governance. This knowledge base will be shared with the greater community to help support settler-led organizations in addressing colonial underpinnings in their organizations and creating a framework for building meaningful connections between settler and Indigenous community members. Please note this is a ever changing library, if you have questions or concerns about a resource, or would like more context to be added to a resource entry, please contact info@10carden.ca
Fall 2024 Confronting Colonization Peer Learning Program
The 2024 peer-learning program was launched to help collectively improve access to resources, perspectives and learning opportunities to support settler-led organizations in addressing colonial systems and structures within and surrounding their organizations.
The program will provided support and guidance for addressing colonial underpinnings in organizations and help settler-led organizations take tangible steps to create more equitable collaborative opportunities with Indigenous Peoples.
We hope to offer this peer-learning program again in the future.
The piece features two primary elements: a canoe, and a cut log blooming new flowers. In Anishinàbemowin, the word for “goodbye” is more of a prayer for the journey ahead: màdjàshin, or journey well. According to my family’s teachings, the word was used by our ancestors when pushing one’s canoe into the water. It is a solemn moment, an acknowledgment of loss, but also a wish for something better ahead.
In the same way, new growth from a dying log offers a visual representation of how hope can always grow from darkness. In order to decolonize our futures and nurture the flowers of change, we must confront the ongoing legacies of oppression, genocide, and colonization, that have left many of our communities in states of forgotten decay. To confront colonialism, both as a country and as individuals, we must honour Indigenous history and resiliency in an authentic way, with purpose and respect.
Lastly, the centre position of the canoe represents the role of Indigenous people in the Guswenta, or Two-Row Wampum Treaty, and the importance of acknowledging Indigenous sovereignty in conversations around decolonization. The treaty, created between the Haudenosaunee and Dutch settlers in 1613, has two purple rows running alongside each other representing two boats. One boat is the canoe with the Haudenosaunee way of life, laws, and people. The other is the Dutch ship with their laws, religion, and people. As agreed in the treaty, the boats will travel side by side down the river of life in friendship and in peace forever. Each nation will respect the ways of each other and will not interfere with the other. “As long as the grass is green, as long as the water runs downhill, as long as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and as long as our Mother Earth will last.” May we all journey well on our travels forward, màdjàshin.
About the Artist: Western Sky Designs follows the work of Maddie Resmer; a mixed-Anishinàbe, Bear Clan, and Two-Spirit artist from Pìkwakanagàn First Nation and Kitigan-Zibi First Nation, based in Kitchener, Ontario (Haldimand Tract Treaty Territory).