This is Unceded Land: Making Connections

The FEELed Lab gathers and unfurls on the traditional, ancestral and stolen territories of the syilx people. These lands were never ceded.

We encourage you (if you haven’t already) to read the statement by the Syilx Okanagan Chiefs reaffirming unceded syilx Okanagan land as an historical truth and reality.

The FEELed Lab stands in solidarity. None of our work would be possible without the care by syilx people for these lands since time immemorial. When we acknowledge this truth at our events and gatherings, we do so from a place of ever-growing knowledge and respect.

In our work, we strive to connect historical colonialism and genocide with ongoing colonialisms and the violences through which they manifest. Whether this is through support of student initiatives in protest of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, or through our storytelling workshops that explore access and inclusion, we make space to consider–deeply and honestly–how our actions can simultaneously continue to support syilx-led work towards sovereignty.

As university students and workers, we reaffirm that decolonial work (including work on equity, access and inclusion; and support for anti-genocide work) is necessary to ensure a just and meaningful future for all; this knowledge is borne out by rigorous research across many disciplines. We are grateful to be able to contribute to this knowledge, working under conditions of academic freedom, and we support these conditions for all. We welcome the sometimes difficult conversations that are necessary for the ongoing production of robust knowledge in its many forms.

We are immensely grateful that our current work as part of Earth Sense is another opportunity to learn about the deep connections between climate justice, colonialism, and access to knowledge; this includes knowledge-making in syilx-led ways (we also encourage you to read Erin Delf’s blogpost about a recent IndigenEYEZ-led workshop, that also includes other important syilx-led opportunities for learning.)

You can find a previous affirmation of the connections between Canada’s ongoing occupation of Indigenous lands and the ongoing genocide in Gaza in this blogpost from last year. (“FEELing Solidarity”). Or check out this zine, published in last month’s newsletter in a post called “Zines: A loveletter” by FEELed friend Lola Melchior. Our Access and Inclusion work similarly understands access robustly: we are learning that true access and inclusion is an ongoing process, and cannot be separated from access to Land.

It is never superfluous to reiterate these obligations, and reaffirm our commitment to anticolonial, feminist, queer, antiracist and disability justice work–especially in their inextricable connections.