In May 2020, I began “Six Miles Deep”, a documentary project to explore my role and responsibilities as a settler living on stolen lands. I hope the project might become collaborative and am open to that. My aim is to raise awareness to white settlers like myself, particularly those living in the area defined via the Haldimand Tract, and make some small beginning at reparation for colonial theft, genocide and erasure. I was born, live and work on lands promised to Six Nations via the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784. These lands are traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and Neutral Peoples.
Today, Six Nations (Mohawk, Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida, Onandaga and Tuscarora) only retain about 5% of the lands promised to them without any proper reparations made to them. Land must be part of any true reconciliation. And the lands outlined in the proclamation are described as lands for Six Nations “to take possession of and settle upon the Banks of the River commonly called Ours [Ouse] or Grand River, running into Lake Erie, allotting to them for that purpose six miles deep from each side of the river beginning at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the head of the said river, which them and their posterity are to enjoy for ever.” (Direct wording quoted from the Proclamation by ‘Frederick Haldimand, Captain General and Governor General in Chief of the Province of Quebec and Territories depending thereon.’)