LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

Gallery TPW acknowledges that we live, work, and create on stolen land. We occupy the territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnaabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples, now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. Tkaronto is part of Treaty 13 and the Dish With One Spoon covenant. This reminds us that we all eat with one bowl and spoon, and therefore, must take only what we need and leave some for others.  

 

This territorial acknowledgment is part of a continuous process of questioning and undoing settler complicity and the complexities within the colonial fabric of so-called Canadian society. Through ongoing and sustained inquiry, TPW is committed to a process of learning and unlearning with the goal of embodying the right relations with First Nations peoples and the land we share and care for. 

 

Jas M. Morgan’s August 2020 report titled, A Culture of Exploitation: “Reconciliation” and the Institutions of Canadian Art [1] reminds us that Canadian art industries are implicated in colonial violence and that we have a history of erasure and exploitation of Indigenous cultural workers. Gallery TPW is committed to reconciliation, inclusivity, social justice, and reciprocity in the physical and virtual spaces that we occupy. We are actively working towards best practices, where long-term relationships are met with support and care.

 

Gallery TPW acknowledges the sovereignty of First Nations peoples and when called upon will engage in calls to action. We support the efforts of Grassy Narrows Nation and the five First Nations in northern Ontario, who formed a historical allegiance in 2023 to defend their territories against the encroachment of the Ford Government. On September 27th, we closed our gallery to prioritize staff presence at the historical March for the Land rally. In our solidarity letter with 1492 Land Back Lane [3], we urge Canadian officials, at all levels, to recognize the 1784 Haldimand Proclamation and the Six Nations Confederacy’s rights and entitlements over this land. As a public art institution who represents hundreds of stakeholders across the province and that sits on stolen land, we will honour our relationship with the land by standing in solidarity with Indigenous land and water defenders . 

 

The staff of Gallery TPW are working together to better understand and acknowledge our implication in settler-imperial violence through reading groups and discussions. We are asking ourselves: how can this learning be applied to our programming and structure as an artist-run-centre? Below is a list of essays we have read and discussed that we would like to share with our community. We will be updating this acknowledgement to reflect our thinking, reading, and current conditions. 

 

–Gallery TPW staff, October 7, 2023

 

Questions and comments are welcome: info (@) gallerytpw.ca