Wherever you are right now the land holding you holds a history too, a living record that reverberates and remembers; that bears the fruit of our care and the brunt of our forgetting.

We three — Meredith, Molly, Tina — are writing and speaking this from Tkaronto, on the shores of a great lake on Turtle Island. We are offering this from the east end of what is now a sprawling city, an endless bed of concrete that is the place we call home — a home which cuts across habitats, ecosystems, and routes of migration.

We are on the traditional territory of the Wendat, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, the Mississaugas of the Credit, and many more nations, both named and unnamed. We recognize these nations as the past, present and future caretakers of this land. We recognize our responsibility in this relationship and ongoing role in repaying the unearned privilege of living where we do — to the descendants of these nations, to future generations, and to the land that makes it all possible.

We say these words as though we have always known these names, this relationship, this debt. We have not. We are grateful to and humbled by you who are First Nations, Métis, and Inuit elders, educators, activists, knowledge keepers, communities, and individuals of all ages — who labour against the extreme effort of the state to keep whole worlds alive, who work to share what we settlers and treaty people should already know.

This site, the work it contains, and the performance work that inspired it were made with the desire to be together and in this world with more thought and care and attention. And so alongside the practices proposed within, we invite you to also practice here: to learn about the land back movement at this link to the Yellowhead Institute Red Paper and to support community care at this link to an ongoing fundraiser for Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction. You can find these links again in the credits.