Paprika’s activities and operations primarily take place in theatres, houses, apartments, bedrooms, kitchen tables, and offices on the ancestral lands and waterways of the Anishinaabe (including the treaty holders of this territory — the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Chippewa), Haudenosaunee Peoples from the Six Nations Confederacy of the Grand River, Wendat, and any other Nations who cared for the land now known as Tkaron:to (Toronto). Acknowledged and unacknowledged, recorded and unrecorded. Past, present and future. We are so grateful to contribute to the long history of storytelling on this land.
The staff, artists, and facilitators of Paprika are on this land for a variety of reasons—some of us are Indigenous to Turtle Island, while others have settled here for opportunity, or to escape war, persecution, and colonialism in our home countries. Some of our ancestors were brought to this land as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. We want to recognize the often unacknowledged contributions of Black ancestors who came to this land without their consent.
Regardless of how you arrived here, this land is governed by the Dish With One Spoon wampum belt covenant which sees the land as a dish with one spoon, and no knives, that we must work together to share and care for. At Paprika, we aim to honour this treaty in our processes and collaborations, and work to embody the Anishinaabe teachings of Wisdom, Love, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility, and Truth.
We understand that recognition and gratitude alone on the part of settlers is not enough when it comes to healing from and rectifying generations of injustice and violence against the Indigenous peoples of this land and worldwide. Now is a time for education, dialogue, and action.
Want to take action with us? We have a resource table in the Festival Lobby as well as a digital resource table on our website. There, you can read about Paprika’s commitments to decolonizing our practices, and view organizations that we encourage settlers to join us in making donations to.
From Turtle Island to Palestine, from the Congo to Sudan, we at Paprika dream of a world where everyone can work, create art, and live free from oppression, colonization, and genocide. We believe this world is possible. We choose to open the Paprika Festival with this call to action to remind and galvanize us all to take concrete actions towards reconciliation.