Personal Positionality Statements
Providing context is essential, allowing others to better understand the perspective from which we see the world — and therefore the lens through which we pursue climate justice work. A great deal of care always goes into keeping up to date with and following best practices, engaging meaningfully with our learning, and preserving the accuracy/integrity of the sentiments and knowledge shared with us by community members. Despite this, it is inevitable that our various identities and lived experiences limit our interpretations of the teachings, lessons, and best practices learned to the scope of our own schemas.
Kayla (she/her)
My name is Kayla Chutter and I am a 24-year-old recent graduate from the University of Waterloo as of June 2024. I completed a Bachelor of Environmental Studies with an Event Planning minor, and diploma in Environmental Assessment. I am an able-bodied, queer, neurodivergent, cis-gender woman, and white settler. I grew up middle-class on unceded and stolen Coast Salish land, including the territories of the Musqueam Nation, Squamish Nation, and Tsleil-Waututh Nation (also known as Vancouver). In addition, I have had the opportunity to live and learn in so-called Waterloo, Toronto, Whistler, Italy, and Paris. As a settler, my relationship with this land is complex, ever-evolving, and rooted in gratitude.
I would consider myself to be a forever-learning intersectional environmentalist, feminist, and mental health advocate with a firm conviction that allyship is a verb and must be treated as such. I am a sister to 5, daughter to 2, and aunt to 7. I have learned much about myself and others by camping, creating art, traveling, and planning community events.
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Hailey (she/her)
At the age of 15 I went on a five day hiking trip in Stein Valley. It was part of a year-long outdoor program I was part of. Upon arrival we met with an Elder from the Nlaka'pamux Nation. He welcomed us into the territory, and wished us safety on our hiking trip. That was the first time I had witnessed the protocol of being welcomed onto land as a guest. On the final day of our trip we hiked out of the river valley and were invited to visit the same Nlaka'pamux Elder at their house. We stood in his yard on the overcast afternoon, and he explained that behind him was a sweat lodge, which he built out of the bricks of his residential school. He guided us into the sweat lodge, which was lined on the bottom with cedar branches, and his sons passed in hot rocks into the center. He shared with us his story and songs, and explained how the sweat lodge was therapeutic and healing to him. This experience in Stein Valley set me on a path of navigating what I can do, as a settler on stolen lands, to channel my passion for environmental protection while supporting and respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and their resurgence.
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I plan to work in environmental policy. To me, it is land and community based work, which requires strong reflection of my place on these lands. Self location informs my place within reconciliation efforts with Indigenous nations and my entire approach to the field. It builds important bridges between my connection to and care for the land and how I can support and respect the rights of Indigenous peoples. I want to support Indigenous resurgence as they are the stewards and generational knowledge holders of these lands since time immemorial. Aside from the classes I’ve been able to take for my minor in Indigenous Studies, I try to educate myself through community. Indigenous book talks, film screenings, conferences, live streamed panels, public gatherings, medicine gardens, art openings and cultural events are widely organized on Lekwungen land.
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In 2021 I worked with students to organize a climate event at the University of Victoria. The event also acted as a fundraiser for the Indigenous Land Defenders at Gidimt’en Checkpoint and for the Ma’amtagila Rematriation Project. Our first speaker was Paul Chiyokten Wagner of the W̱SÁNEĆ Nation who has been involved with Standing Rock Resistance camps, fossil fuel divestment campaigns, Cop21 Paris Climate talks, and the Ada'itsx/Fairy Creek old growth blockades. At the end of the event, he came over to me and pointed out a few chairs that had been left empty. He explained that these chairs were there for our ancestors to sit in. He spoke about how knowing his ancestry has changed his life and challenged me to find out more about mine. This was my first introduction to self location through family history, and I took it as an important call to action. Since then, I have been speaking with my relatives to learn more about my European ancestry and my settler history.
My maternal grandfather is mainly Polish, and my maternal grandmother is Baltic. They immigrated together to Canada in 1950 after my grandfather was offered a job to treat Tuberculosis in New Brunswick, as he was a specialist. My mother and many of her siblings live on Coast Salish territory presently. My paternal grandmother was born in Amersfoort, Netherlands with Dutch ancestry as far back as we know. I traveled to her hometown a few summers ago to learn more about my Dutch heritage. She was eleven when WWII broke out, and lived through it there. She knew seven languages and immigrated to Ottawa by boat in 1954’s to work for the Dutch Embassy. My paternal grandfather was born in Vancouver in the 1920’s. Through his mothers side I am 6th generation Canadian, with mainly English ancestry and a bit of Scottish. Hia maternal great grandfather was an English civil servant who settled in Charlottetown, PEI, and his son went to the West Coast. We have connections to the prairies in Oak Lake, Manitoba through the Lang family. Through his fathers side I am also English. I am on a journey to uncover more details about my settler background in Canada. Knowing these histories informs how I came to be on these lands, and what my responsibilities are to it. I find it ironic that settler history is often imposed in the education system, but personal family stories seem to fade into the past. I am committed to knowing my own stories, and how they are entangled with settler colonialism. To untangle I must first find the strings.