Respect & Kanoronhkwátshera

A place of connection for people interested in advocating for justice in Montreal / Quebec, respecting Indigenous leadership.

WHO WE ARE

Respect & Kanoronhkwátshera was born out of the desire to emphasize Indigenous justice activities while facilitating contact between Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations. We will target urgent concerns including housing, food security, child welfare, healthcare, and racism via creative and nonviolent public activities, with the goal of bringing these injustices to an end.

We use our public acts as a platform to encourage people to advocate for fair and courteous treatment of every resident of Quebec. Through creating a hub for human rights and justice groups across the province, we hope to highlight the accomplishments of Indigenous-led projects.

We are setting up a central information centre for the Conseil régional Nakonha:ka Region Council to facilitate swifter awareness of public actions. By ensuring prompt notifications of requests for public action, this hub will promote a more involved and receptive community.

Recognizing that organizations are often isolated from one another; we hope to raise awareness of one another’s projects in order to create synergy and encourage more people to take positive action. Our creative and nonviolent public acts aim to draw attention, inspire, and foster a feeling of community among individuals from many backgrounds who are bound together by a common dedication to justice and moral living.

By working together and exchanging knowledge, we can strengthen our lobbying efforts and approach various governmental institutions to demand equitable and courteous treatment for all who live on the traditional territories of the eleven Indigenous nations in the region we call Québec: Abenakis, Anishinabe, Atikamekw, Eeyou, Huron-Wendat, Innu, Inuit, Kanien’kehá:ka, Mi’kmaq, Naskapi, and Wolastoqiyik. We acknowledge the efforts and leadership of Indigenous groups in our area and thank them for their support as we work towards these revolutionary objectives, guided by the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

• Respect & Kanoronhkwátshera project of the Living into Right Relations Circle of Conseil régional Nakonhá:ka Regional Council.

“Let justice roll down like waters and right relations flow like a mighty stream.” Amos 5:24, adapted.

With gratitude for the land, we say:

One: This land is Sacred.

It has been anointed for tens of thousands of years with the dust and bones of all those who lived here before us. As we came here, we were invited to share this land with the original people, with a common love and concern for the land that we would live upon and share, in good ways.

….We acknowledge that …. treaty agreements were not to be considered as land surrenders; but to be considered as agreements of sharing together.

All: We are all treaty people. May we live with respect on this land, and live in peace and friendship with its people.

Adapted from Rationale for Redeveloping the Territorial Acknowledgement by Lee Claus, 2022.