The Public is located on lands that have traditionally been and continue to be tended by the Wendat Nation, the Three Fires Anishinaabek Confederacy, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

As we work towards designing a better world, we hold closely in our hearts our responsibility to honour the principles of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabek Confederacies and allied nations to peaceably share, honour, and care for this land that so graciously sustains us and allows us to continue our work.

We know that processes of colonization on this land go hand-in-hand with colonial violence world-wide, and our commitment is to also support global land-back movements, including Palestine and Kashmir.

Decolonization is political, deeply personal, embodied, relational, ancestral and pragmatic. We sat down to co-author an authentic land-back statement that speaks to this multi-layered, ongoing and iterative practice. What started as a “statement” turned into a “discussion”—one of many that have happened, and one of many to come. 

As a group, we are committed to principles of self-determination, liberation, generative reciprocity and care. We actively challenge the transactional nature of working relationships under capitalism, and design processes that resist extraction and reimagine top-down expertise. These principles and actions are inextricably linked to, and take leadership from, Indigenous-led sovereignty movements and permeate through our processes, relations, and output. 

At this time, we are facing the limitation of (English) language to capture these embodied intentions, actions and dreams. For now, this page is a commitment to continue to follow these principles and reflect on what this means for our work. As artists, we look forward to adding non-linguistic expressions to this space, as an on-going exploration of what it means to commit to land back.