Katarokwi
Kingston is established on the traditional land of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe & Huron-Wendat people in the Katarokwi region, as it was known pre-contact. Katarokwi is a Mohawk word that means "where the limestone is" (https://www.queensjournal.ca/history-of-katarokwi/). We are grateful to the land for the warm sunshine, cool breeze in the wind, beautiful flowers and gentle waves of the waters that sustain us.
Our Positionality
Supporting Indigenous Climate Leaders
We are constantly grateful to generations of Indigenous land stewards who have played such a large role in biodiversity protection across the globe. The climate work that we do aims to support these climate leaders. In addition, we respect & admire the spiritual connections that Indigenous cultures share with the earth and recognize that this is an important reason why we need to continue to fight for the protection of nature.
Humbling Ourselves
As white settlers, we humble ourselves in our efforts to include Indigenous pedigogy in everything we do. We strive to respectfully include Indigenous ways of knowing and exploring the world, while maintaining a focus on avoiding performative action. We can not claim to center Indigeneity in our efforts because we are not in the position to do so while not being Indigenous ourselves.
Constantly Learning
As a group, we have explored Indigenous pedagogy that individuals have learned from taking Indigenous Studies courses as well as reading other Indigenous texts such as Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (highly recommend, by the way). We are aware that there is always more to learn, and we will continue to share our learning with each other. Some books we strive to tackle this year are: The Red Deal & Lessons in Legitimacy which will help give us direction in our climate action and further our learning about Indigenous history & climate leadership in Canada.