Land Acknowledgement

Last updated: June 6, 2024

The Break Up With Your Bank campaign was founded in Tkaronto, which is colonially known as Toronto. This land has been stewarded and cared for by many nations, including the Huron-Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe peoples. It is governed by the Dish With One Spoon treaty or Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Anishinabek and Haudensaunee Confederacies and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the land around the Great Lakes. The most recent treaty holders are the Mississaugas of the Credit who signed Treaty 13, which has been shamefully violated, misrepresented and the Mississauga’s rights undermined by the colonial governments of Britain and then Canada.

It is our responsibility to call out the ongoing occupation and destruction of Indigenous lands and genocidal violence towards Indigenous peoples here, in Palestine, and around the world which the Canadian state, and its banks, are actively promoting, financing and benefiting from. When we start looking at our personal finances, we get a better picture of where we are materially located in systems of oppression—we see how, often without our consent, our finances are tied up in industries and practices that are incredibly violent to humans, non-humans, and this earth we rely on. We encourage you to reflect on whose land you’re on and how your own accountability to those nations can inform the way you show up for divestment and re-investment work.