CGAS RISER Found Festival

Found Festival Land Acknowledgment

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT:

We find ourselves in amiskwaciwâskahikan (ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ) on Treaty 6 territory, traditional lands of the Cree, Nakota, Blackfoot, Dene, Saulteaux, Métis, and other Indigenous peoples who have made this place home long before we settled here. For thousands of years, people have gathered here to share in story, community, and creative exchange.

The following words reference colonial violence.Found Festival is rooted in celebrating and questioning our relationship to place and space. We find connections in unexpected corners of our community. We have the incredible privilege of sharing stories on land within this community, a privilege that is not available to all of our neighbours. This land has seen immense joy and has seen immense pain. Pain largely perpetrated by settler populations.Common Ground Arts Society recognizes our responsibility as caretakers of these spaces during the festival, and as caretakers of our wider community long into the future. We commit to anti-racist and reconciliatory practices in our hiring, programming, and daily operations and work to find healing in our relations.

As a settler-led organization, words feel feeble as an attempt to honour the land that we find ourselves on. When you leave the Festival tonight, we invite you to consider your relationship to the trees around us, ground beneath us, and the river south of us. To our settler audiences, we invite you to learn about actions we can take as individuals to restore the intention of the treaties and support Indigenous led actions.

Petitions, resources, and more:

Petition the House of Commons to investigate all residential school sites: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-3484
Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action:http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf
Indian Residential School Survivors Society: https://www.irsss.ca/
National Indian Residential School Crisis Line for former Residential School students: 1-866-925-4419
Legacy of Hope: https://legacyofhope.ca/
Indigenous Canada – Free Course from the University of Alberta: https://www.coursera.org/learn/indigenous-canada
Witness Blanket: http://witnessblanket.ca/ “Inspired by a woven blanket, we have created a large scale art installation, made out of hundreds of items reclaimed from Residential Schools, churches, government buildings and traditional and cultural structures including Friendship Centres, band offices, treatment centres and universities, from across Canada. The Witness Blanket stands as a national monument to recognise the atrocities of the Indian Residential School era, honour the children, and symbolise ongoing reconciliation.”