York Region Food Network’s work and values are intimately connected to land and its people. We live and work on the traditional territories of the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, the Mississauga’s of the Credit and the Anishinaabe peoples.
We recognize the ongoing process of colonialism has destroyed traditional food systems and we see this through the high rates of Indigenous peoples experiencing food insecurity, violence enacted on Indigenous peoples through the destruction of environment, control of land, water and food sources, the legacy of residential schools and lack of access to clean water and culturally relevant foods.
We have a fundamental responsibility to not just acknowledge the traditional lands we are on, but to work every day to unlearn and relearn our history. We are committed to honouring our responsibilities as treaty people part of the Williams Treaties and Treaty 13, and the role we play in reconciliation.
It is also imperative that we recognize the many people of African descent who are not settlers but whose ancestors were forcibly displaced as part of the transatlantic slave trade.