The Canadian Worker Co-op Federation gratefully and respectfully acknowledges the traditional, ancestral, unceded territories of Indigenous peoples whose presence reaches back to time immemorial, across the land we call Canada. CWCF acknowledges that our offices, in Penooek (Kentville, NS), Win-nipi (Winnipeg), and Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary), are respectively located on the following territories:
- Penooek (Kentville) is in Mi’kma’ki, the traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq people, covered by the Treaties of Peace and Friendship.
- Win-nipi (Winnipeg) is in the traditional territories of the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe), Ininiwak (Cree), Oji-Cree, Dakota (Sioux), and Métis, nations; Treaty 1 territory.
- Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary) is in the territories of the Blackfoot, the Tsuut’ina, and the Stoney Nakoda, and Métis Region 3; Treaty 7 territory.
CWCF recognizes these First Nations and the Métis as the customary keepers and defenders of these lands. We acknowledge their long history of accommodating people from overseas nations while also resisting colonial subjugation.
Further, CWCF recognizes and affirms the inherent and treaty rights of all Indigenous peoples across these lands. CWCF will continue to honour the commitments to self-determination and sovereignty we have made to Indigenous nations and peoples.
CWCF acknowledges the colonial oppression of the original peoples in what we now know as Canada. We are firmly committed to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together.
The CWCF honours the co-operative traditions that defined all the economies of northern North America before being disrupted by European merchant trade and subsequent state-administered, colonial dominance. They were fully based on values that are currently promoted by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA): self-help, self-responsibility, [consensus] democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. These co-operative economies flourished because they were grounded on ethical values now subscribed to by the ICA: honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.
CWCF recognizes that land acknowledgements are not enough. Regarding the actions that CWCF is taking and will take, it has recently approved an action plan to build ‘Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion’ in the worker co-op movement.