Land Acknowledgement
I begin by acknowledging that the place from where I live and work, Tiohtià:ke, also known as Montréal, QC, Canada, is located on ancestral and unceded Indigenous lands. As a recent transplant to Montréal, I am an uninvited guest residing on the lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Huron/Wendat, Abenaki, and Anishinaabeg Peoples. I am also a white settler, and I bring with me the story and the baggage of my ancestors, both direct and indirect, who bear responsibility for the genocide of countless Indigenous individuals and communities though time. Along with responsibility for and accountability to these memories and histories, I carry with me the desire and need to transform the present into a decolonized future.
As an immigrant I retain physical and emotional ties to my homeland, the United States of America, and specifically to the place that nurtured me for the nineteen years before my arrival in Tiohtià:ke. The ocean and rivers of Massachusetts and the wisdom of the Massachusett people—whose name was appropriated by the Commonwealth—has allowed the land to flourish even in the wake of the English invaders who sailed across its waters and colonized the spaces and territories of the region shared by the Massachusett, Pawtucket, Pentucket, Naumkeag, Agawam, Nipmuc and Wabanaki Peoples, among other nations. The intelligence and care of these Peoples have allowed the earth and waters of Massachusetts to continue to nourish a rich cultural milieu that shaped my world view as a resident on those lands. I learned from the city of Boston and its universities and was supported by its grounds.
I am grateful for the endless labor of the Massachusett people for advancing conversations about their ongoing presence as members of the Massachusett Tribal Nation and citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States of America. This knowledge brought an awareness that allowed me to begin the ongoing process of doing decolonial work. I am forever indebted to Massachusetts, with its hills and valleys and rivers that carve the land into greenways and marshes lapped by salty ocean water, as well as the Massachusett people, who have and continue to care for and respect the land today as they have for the last 13,000 years. I am grateful for the lessons of respect and reciprocity that Massachusetts and the Massachusett people have given me, and I bring these with me to Tiohtià:ke.
As an immigrant, I arrive in Tiohtià:ke without cultural context to support my visit but with desire to understand the complexities of how this island has and continues to support the First Nations. I also understand that as both a temporary resident and a university student, I am entering into a long history of colonialization, and through my teaching praxis and research, I am committed to the exploration and celebration of diverse perspectives and world views. This shows up in my research as a desire to rescript the confines of what is considered ill and well mental health through the inclusion of wider world views that are not always acknowledged in Western medicine and practice. I also recognize that, as a temporary resident on these lands, it is my responsibility to make as little negative impact as possible and to continually pay respect to Tiohtià:ke and the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, rightful guardians of these lands and waters, who live and thrive in Tiohtià:ke today as they have for many thousands of years.