Honouring the Land
Oakville Improv Theatre Company acknowledges that we perform, live and work on the lands known as Treaty 14 and 22, and that the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation are the traditional stewards of this historic territory. We also acknowledge that this land has had ancestral and historical significance to other Anishinaabe, to the Neutral people, the Wendat, to the Haudenosaunee (of The Longhouse Confederacy), the Métis, and other documented and undocumented people, because of where we are located on this well-travelled path around the lake known as Ontario.
We are thankful for the privilege of being beside one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, in a town with beautiful trail systems, public parks and trees. Halton Region has a thriving local farm community that supplies our markets and stores with fresh produce, dairy and meat. We are grateful and benefit from its bounty. Many of us have unhindered access to it all.
We also acknowledge and remember how our own small community of artists has benefited from the work of outstanding First Nations improvisers, directors, and comedians who have generously taught and played with Oakville Improv Theatre Company. They have brought our community incredible joy and laughter.
We acknowledge all these things as an organization and as a group of artists who are part of the global human family. We cannot fail to see how interconnected and dependent we are on each other and how every decision we make through intention or ignorance has an impact on us all.
We are all treaty people.
Reconciliation is an ongoing active and painful process, and land acknowledgements are only a small part of that. We still have so much to learn and understand. We commit to discovering truth through educating ourselves and coming to terms with our painful and shameful past. Our present relationship with this land’s diverse Indigenous Peoples – First Nations, Metis and Inuit cannot be reconciled without exposing and disseminating historic and ongoing truth, by honouring treaties, and dismantling colonial practices which continue to traumatize those same peoples. We commit to amplifying their voices by attending, participating, and actively promoting regional and town events. We will read and continue to discover together the history of our own Town of Oakville and helping others to do the same.