Annual Break Free from Domestic Violence Gala | April 25, 2020

The Jessica Martel Memorial Foundation acknowledges the traditional lands upon which we live, work, and play. We are located on Treaty 6 land, and we wish to thank the Cree, Blackfoot, Assiniboine, Dene, Iroquois, Inuit, and many other nations who have gathered on these lands for thousands of years. We also thank the Métis people of the North Saskatchewan River Territory and Western Canada.

This land has been welcoming guests for tens of thousands of years. We wish to acknowledge the many migrants who have made Canada their home. Many of these migrants are also Indigenous to their home countries and have also been colonized for hundreds of years. This legacy of colonization has left Indigenous peoples impoverished as the colonizers took away land and extracted rich resources. These migrants had to leave their countries to seek a better life for their families.

We recognize that all Albertans are Treaty people and have a responsibility to understand our history so that we can honor the past, be aware of the present, and create a just and caring future. We celebrate and value the resiliency, successes, and teachings that Alberta’s Indigenous people have shown us. We honour the legacy of colonization and its impacts on Indigenous Albertans and newcomers. Most of all, we are grateful to the Indigenous people of Alberta for sharing their land with us and blessing us with its abundance.