Equity and Understanding

Dumbo Octopus Consulting is situated on the Haldimand Tract, land that was granted to the Haudenosaunee of the Six Nations of the Grand River, and is within the territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples.

The Haldimand Treaty dates back to October 25th, 1784, when Sir. Frederick Haldimand, then governor of New France entered into an agreement with the Six Nations to return them 10km of land on each side of the Grand River flowing from Lake Erie. While the Haldimand Tract was meant to acknowledge the Six Nations support of the British during the American Revolution, the land has never been fully returned, and ongoing land title disputes between the Government of Canada and Six Nation’s Confederacy are still occurring. In fact, today the peoples of Six Nations only have ownership of under 5% of the original 950,000 acres of land that the treaty stated was to be returned.

At Dumbo Octopus Consulting, we recognize and acknowledge that the Six Nations of the Grand River are the original caretakers of this land upon which we stand. As the descendants of white settlers, we have directly benefited from policies of expulsion and assimilation of Indigenous peoples during the time of settlement and Confederation, and since. The harms of these policies are many and are still being felt in Indigenous communities today.

We are all Treaty People with responsibilities to care for one another and this land. It is up to us to change the relationship between Indigenous communities and the Canadian settler state. Dumbo Octopus Consulting is actively committed to doing the work to unlearn harmful Eurocentric knowledge models, build meaningful and non-tokenistic relationships with Indigenous peoples, preserve land for future generations and support land back initiatives, all while educating ourselves about the role the non-profit sector continues to have and has had in the cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples. It is with this knowledge that we must pursue our individual and collective roles in Truth and Reconciliation, not only committing to meaningful change, but taking active steps to center the voices of Indigenous peoples while also ensuring we do not perpetuate further harm and oppression.

Additionally, Dumbo Octopus Consulting acknowledges the ways in which capitalism, patriarchy, and racism work together and create harmful systems that have deliberately excluded equity-serving groups and kept marginalized communities from being able to thrive in Waterloo Region. We operate through an intersectional feminist lens that examines how race, class, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and immigration status impact our clients and contribute to the power dynamics in their work. We are deeply committed to doing work that is anti-racist and will support the decolonization of the world around us. We are not content with the status quo and know that many of the norms within non-profit work perpetuate inequality. We are working as hard as we can to shift this, while also continuing our own learning journeys.

As two white women who have spent substantial time learning about the very deep inequities that exist in Canadian society today, we offer our services with kindness and the very real desire to help historically excluded groups thrive. We believe in treating clients with respect and care, and will walk alongside you through the challenges that come from working in the nonprofit sector. We have been there and enjoy consulting because it allows us to learn and grow alongside incredible community leaders - like you! We seek to utilize our collective experience to help grassroots groups access the non-profit resources that our capitalist system traditionally withholds from them. This includes a strong understanding of what has worked for various small, grassroots organizations led by non-traditional leaders and being able to apply new ways of knowing to consulting work. Our commitment to equity allows Dumbo Octopus Consulting to turn intersectional feminist ideas into action.