Land Acknowledgement
The EFECT wishes to acknowledge that the lands on which we work and created these projects.
It is an honor to work on is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit river, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples and that it is home to many first nations, Inuit and Metis people. We acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13, signed with the Mississauga of the Credit and the Williams treaty signed with multiple Mississauga and Chippewa bands.
McMaster University recognizes and acknowledges that it is located on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations, and within the lands protected by the “Dish With One Spoon” wampum agreement.
McGill University, Concordia University, the Atwater Library and Vanier College are located on the unceded territory of Tiohtià:ke, now known as Montréal; the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation are the traditional custodians of these lands and waters.
The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the histories, languages, and cultures of First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.
We recognize our responsibility to care for these lands, to understand and respect treaties, to engage in ongoing learning about past and present indigenous cultures across Turtle Island, and to work to enhance respect for all life on these lands. Migwetch.
Our Story
In this SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, EFECT borrows from work previously done with FemTechNet to reflect on why women, racialized women, and non-binary people find ICT/M spaces to be uninviting and inhospitable. We seek to tackle cultural practices of oppression that prohibit the entry and continued success of these diverse peoples into ICT/M educational and work environments. Their exclusion tends to create media and technology content that is violent, misogynistic, and non-representative, which in turn perpetuates cycles of exclusion, bias and prejudice.
We’ve responded to this issue by developing a set of methods and toolkits which reflect our common ethics and equity based collaboration. Our definition of collaboration is purposefully expansive; we work self-reflexively in our own network, while also engaging community partners such as METRAC, Atwater Library, and SARC, young people, community organizers, artist, entrepreneurs and tech-industry innovators to re-frame digital culture and media-masking as tools to empower, educate and build bridges.
Our Methods
EFECT’s work is experimental and process based, focusing on self and collaborative discovery to evolve this network together. As such, we co-create projects within our network, and alongside our community partners in order to develop diverse and inclusive communities within ICT/M spaces. Part of our method is to work as members of these communities and with community based organizations most affected by violence to craft appropriate toolkits and resources for those wishing to enter or already working in ICT/M.
EFECT is organized into Pods that function together as a collaborative network. Currently we have Pods in Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton. Each one works independently, often with one or more of our community partners and communicates back to the network monthly.