Acknowledgement of history

We are a group of settlers who are not Indigenous to the land we live on.  As settlers, we see that we are direct, material beneficiaries of the theft of Indigenous land and the imprisonment of Indigenous people on reserves and in residential schools. We are direct, material beneficiaries of the brutal biological and physical war that 'Canada' unleashed upon Indigenous people, including the spread of smallpox, the destruction of coastal Indigenous villages by bombing and fire, and the forced relocations or summary executions of those who resisted colonization. Our towns, cities, roads, schools and hospitals were built from the profits of the dispossession of land and resources from Indigenous people, and profit continues to accrue to settler individuals, settler governments and settler corporations through this process.

Indigenous Resurgence

Indigenous people have always resisted colonization. There is currently a broad resurgence movement within and across Indigenous nations. From individual camps to cross-nation coordination, Indigenous people are mobilizing incredible strength to revitalize their cultural practices and to protect their traditional lands and waters, including resisting resource extraction projects encroaching on their territories without consent.

Reparations and Solidarity

Understanding this history and present-day context, Gathering Allies does not see our work as acts of charity, but as acts of reparation and solidarity. All steering members put a percentage of their monthly income towards this work.