Land Acknowledgement & A Call for Decolonization
In keeping with Indigenous culture and to build respectful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, we acknowledge that our office is located on the traditional unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, the keepers of this land reaching from the center of Coast Salish Territory on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, to the Fraser River, since time immemorial.
As settlers, it’s important to recognize that although we call this place home, the Snuneymuxw First Nation never ceded their lands to the Crown. Instead, we arrived here, and across Turtle Island, uninvited and imposed, participated in, and benefited from the colonial system. Our challenge as settlers, whether recently arrived or born here, is to recognize and work actively to decolonize these systems.
The devastating and lasting impacts of colonization have done much to erase the culture, language, tradition, economy, and worldviews of Indigenous peoples. We will listen, educate ourselves on decolonization, and uplift and celebrate the Indigenous peoples of this land and, upon invitation to do so, support them in the pursuit of self-determination, sovereignty, and justice.
An integral part of our mission and vision has been to publish books for a world of change, in a way that has a minimal impact on our environment, to help build a just and ecologically sustainable society. For this work to remain authentic and meaningful, we acknowledge our settler privilege and understand the impact it has on the land and Indigenous peoples.
We also acknowledge that while our main business address is located on the land of the Snuneymuxw, we have staff settled on the land of: Southern Anishinaabe (Ojibwa), Western Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, Anishinabewaki, Michif Piyii (Métis), K’ómoks First Nation, Coast Salish, sc̓əwaθenaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsawwassen), Quw’utsun, Á,LEṈENEȻ ȽTE (W̱SÁNEĆ), Stz’uminus, Hul’q’umi’num’.