Territory acknowledgement
Victoria and the surrounding area is located on Coast Salish and Straits Salish Territories. This is Lkwungen land.
Some further reflections
Some further reflections on territory and colonization.
We would like to acknowledge that the land we live and work on is First Nations’ territory. The city of Victoria and surrounding area lies on the territories of various Straits and Coast Salish peoples including, but not just, the Esquimalt, Songhees, and WSANEC. We launched this project in the summer of 2012, the 150th anniversary of the City of Victoria. This was an anniversary of colonial history and, importantly, ongoing colonialism.
The land we live and work on is occupied by people, ourselves included, who are largely not indigenous to this area. The circumstances by which this has come to pass are widely misunderstood by resettlers.
Our intent in acknowledging the territory is to recognize the myriad ways that our larger colonial communities are implicated in the ongoing impacts on First Nations people and to work towards a more intersectional approach to challenging power and privilege.
First Nations in British Columbia
The Anti-Violence Project acknowledgement and their about page
