Reel Asian’s offices are located on the treaty territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat nations. This territory is covered by the Dish With One Spoon covenant, a treaty of collective responsibility for the protection and sharing of land and resources.
As we move to a digitally hosted festival that will screen Canada-wide, we encourage audiences to learn the specific histories and stories of the lands they are settled on— the 11 treaty lands, many treaty agreements, and traditional, unceded territories that continue to demand justice—and to support the ongoing work of Indigenous leaders and communities.
We acknowledge the abundance of positionalities, histories, communities and relationships we support as a festival that platforms and elevates voices from Asian and Asian diasporic film and media arts. Regardless of our diverse pathways, we all benefit from a history of broken treaties by the Canadian government, and we reckon openly with our responsibility as settler-immigrants to this land and its original stewards, naming the ways we are complicit in structures of white supremacy, while striving to be better allies with the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.
Reel Asian also recognizes the way “development” has historically been used to steal land and displace people, and how technology continues to be wielded to suppress, surveil and inflict violence on Indigenous communities. In light of this, our online festival this year intentionally centres critical conversations that question, interrogate and hold accountable our use of digital tools and creation of digital spaces.
Finally, in a year of urgent reckoning, we recognize the historical and ongoing events that have created and nurtured the conditions and tragedies of this specific year. We honour the longstanding work of organizers, creatives, and communities that continue to give us hope, language, and possibility. We stand with Indigenous peoples all over Turtle Island who are exercising their sovereignty and working toward justice and freedoms, whose histories, presence and imagined futures inspire us over and over to envision what our future worlds must look like.