My Presence Here Is Not Neutral

I look around. I look beneath my feet.
​I'm standing on stolen land. This hard truth means
that my presence here is not neutral.
​

If you long for change, you're not alone. There are groups doing the work—offering solidarity, action, and belonging. 100 Women | 100 Oceans hopes to be one of them. In that spirit, I acknowledge that I live and create as an uninvited settler on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory now known as Nelson, BC.

These are the homelands of the Sinixt (Lakes) people, whose enduring presence includes year-round village sites—evidenced, for instance, by ancient pithouse depressions in the Rosemont area. Though denied and displaced, the Sinixt are not gone. They are here. This matters. And it means my presence here is not neutral—it carries weight and responsibility.

These lands are also part of the broader cultural and kinship networks of the Ktunaxa, Syilx (Okanagan), and Secwépemc (Shuswap) peoples, who have longstanding ties and protocols with the Sinixt. I honour those relationships and the knowledge systems, languages, and cultures shaped by this place and still held by its original peoples—despite attempted erasure through policies of genocide, including residential schools.

With gratitude and humility, I accept my share of responsibility. I commit to ongoing learning, to listening, and to implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action—within this project and beyond. That includes sharing a portion of project proceeds in a good way within the community.

I honour the ancestors—those of this land, and my own.

I honour the living Indigenous communities whose healing, brilliance, and cultural revitalization shape this region’s present and future.

I offer thanks to the stewards of these lands, waters, and lifeways.

It is because of these hard truths that I can more deeply appreciate the grace and generosity extended to me here.

It stays with me.

​Thank you.