The Coalition of LGBTQ+ Youth Groups is located on unceded Tio’tia:ke in the language of the Kanien’keháka people. We recognize our organization’s history and present impact in perpetuating barriers for Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ Indigenous (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) youth. This is the organization’s first official Land Acknowledgement and Accountability Engagement. Our current team is engaged in integrating a foundation of work and accountability to our mission’s solidarity with the respect of Indigenous rights and accessibility of Indigenous peoples and youth to their unceded lands.

Acknowledgment of the spaces we occupy

The Coalition of LGBTQ+ Youth Group (our youth services spaces with AlterHéros, Jeunesse Lambda, and Juritrans) is located in the Gay Village on unceded Tio’tia:ke in the language of the Kanien’keháka people.

“Montreal” is known as Tio’tia:ke in the language of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) people, one of the five founding Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the traditional keepers of the land. It is also known as Mooniyang to the Anishinaabeg people. Historically and presently, Tio’tia:ke is an essential meeting place. Diversity and the defense of shared sacred (or safe(r)) spaces is not only a present-day issue but an empowering reality advocated by past and present land and water defenders.

In collaboration with Jeunesse Lambda, AlterHéros, and Juritrans (previously with Project 10), we are proud to coordinate an essential milestone in the Village since 2014 : a youth space that also happens to be on a street of which the name was changed from Amherst to Atateken to honor Indigenous cultures and peoples.

We recognize that the Gay Village can be particularly inaccessible to Indigenous 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and other 2SLGBTQIA+ youth of color. As a touristic and commercial neighborhood, Indigenous 2SLGBTQIA+ youth face the double-edged sword of navigating establishments that promote diversity biased by commercial interest.

We recognize that the history of youth services is deeply tied to the history of Child Welfare Services separating and disenfranchising Indigenous, Inuit, and Métis families and youth. This is an ongoing issue. Indigenous advocacy groups are fighting against of, and we need to take responsibility for our participation in this violence and our resistance against it.