Acknowledgment of the Ancestral Lands of the First Nations Peoples of Canada

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that I live, work, and base this business on the traditional territory of the Tsawwassen and Musqueam First Nations and of all the Hun’qumi’num speaking people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. I pay my deepest respects to Coast Salish elders past and present and extend this acknowledgment to all Indigenous, Inuit, and Metis People visiting this page or accessing my work.

I recognize the ongoing collective and ancestral trauma resulting from stolen generations, deaths in residential schools, and other forms of systemic violence in so-called Canada. I acknowledge the resilience, strength, and commitment of our First Nations peoples to reclaiming sovereignty in the face of ongoing colonization. I honour this ancient culture, acknowledging that the sovereignty of these lands and waterways was never ceded.

As a classically trained opera singer and music teacher, I have benefited from the institutionalized education of universities, and continue to engage in and benefit from colonialism in the ways of Western music-making and experiencing, within a very narrow and whitewashed square. I recognize that music is inherently part of Indigenous, Inuit, and Metis culture, that this culture was stolen, and replaced with the Western music framework I now engage with and work under.

I commit to deepening my insight into the cultural appropriation of music, to respect and hold space for language, kinship, knowledge, art, music, performance, and storytelling sovereign to this nation so that it may become a tool for cultural safety and cultural respect.

I understand that there has been no cultural exchange on these lands, and therefore that my position of leadership in the music industry has been an honour and a privilege.

Today, and every day, I commit to making manifest my deep respect for and acknowledgment of the First Peoples of Canada, and their rights and freedoms, in the best way I know how.

(with thanks to Allison Davies of Music and the Brain for allowing me to use her eloquent words as a basis for the above acknowledgment)

To learn more about and support Indigenous culture in Canada, check out these resources:

Please consider investing your time and energy in the University of Alberta’s free Coursera course on Indigenous Canada HERE
Learn more about and support Residential School Survivors by donating HERE
Learn more about and support the Gord Downie/Chanie Wenjack fund [DWF]
Learn more about Indigenous culture past and present with the Unreserved Podcast with Falen Johnson on CBC Radio One

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Acknowledgment of the Ancestral Lands of the First Nations Peoples of Canada