Statement of Principles
We recognize that the IDEAS Symposium is a gathering designed by the SFU community and for the SFU community, and that our actions as organizers and participants must necessarily reflect this ethos of service. We collectively are committed to developing and maintaining an environment that is built on respect and mutual support towards each other. We therefore strive as an organization and as participants to welcome each other and reject discrimination in all its forms, whether it be based on class, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic class, religion, disability or any other variety. This rejection must take the form of more than just words and thoughts, and we together will work to combat these issues as they arise and take concrete steps in our practice as organizers and as participants in our conference to prevent them from taking root.
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We as organizers will seek to not only reject discrimination in its present forms but also work to combat the legacies of past acts, and will implement a reparative approach to designing our gathering, using it to reflect the actual diversity of our field and uplift marginalized voices.
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As organizers we also recognize that we are uninvited visitors on the lands in which we live and work. Being based at Simon Fraser University, we in particular respectfully acknowledge that we are on unceded Coast Salish territories – specifically the traditional territories of the xÊ·mÉ™θkÊ·É™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), SelÌ“ílÌ“witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Kwikwetlem (kwikwəƛ̓ É™m), and Katzie Nations.
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These ancestral territories have never been given up or won in battle, treaty or other means and crown title to these lands has not been established in any court of law. This means that legal ownership to these lands and resources has not yet been settled between the Crown and the nations upon whose territories we are visitors. Living, working and holding this gathering on these lands is an unearned privilege, and we therefore strive to ensure that the rightful holders, protectors and peoples of these lands are centered in our work, and that we take it upon ourselves to adopt decolonial practices in our daily lives.
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Together we as an academic community have the opportunity to build an environment where we can come together in support and kinship as scientists and as fellow humans, and we invite all participants in this conference to join us in this important goal and make both our field and the world a better and more just place.
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Signed,
The IDEAS Organizing Committee
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