بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
I’d like to acknowledge the internet’s dependency on physical infrastructure and land. I’d also like to express gratitude for the wisdom of indigenous communities, whose connection to the land and sustainable practices inspire new ways of thinking about the digital world.
Toronto, T’karonto, is an area that has been the territory of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy of Six Nations. More recently, this is also the territory of Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit, who are part of the Anishinaabe Nation. Today, T’karonto is still home to the original, Indigenous, Inuit, Métis people and other nations, both recorded and not recorded.
Los Angeles, Tovaangar, where this website platform is based, is the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples.
In acknowledging this, I strive to stay true to the spirit of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Covenant, a pre-colonial agreement that encourages us to only take what we need, leaving enough for each other and our future generations.
As a settler, It’s important for me to acknowledge and thank the land and waterways that provided my family and I the freedom we sought out as Iraqi immigrants. I stand in solidarity with indigenous people everywhere in our world.
I also want to acknowledge the history of the camera as a colonial tool of surveillance and the need to decolonize our views and gazes.
Lastly, I’d like to acknowledge the limits of acknowledgement itself and are aware of its constantly evolving nature.
I dream for all of us healing from, and a future free of, colonialism, imperialism and white supremacy.
-Rasha (edited Summer 2023)