Love Training More, headquartered in Nova Scotia, would like to acknowledge that we run on the unceded ancestral Mi’kmaw territory known as Mi’kma’ki. We offer gratitude for the beauty and strength of both the land and the Indigenous people who have occupied and used this land since time immemorial. Truth and Reconciliation must be ongoing and if we are to responsibly enjoy the land that we love to run on, we have a role to play. We should know about the history of the land where we run and the history of the Indigenous people who have lived in harmony with the land long before contact with settlers and colonizers. As runners, we can and should take responsibility for advocating to elected officials to continue to do better to engage in Truth and Reconciliation and to address the national crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
As a coaching team of 3 White women and an online community of diverse runners across the country, we acknowledge and honour each runner’s full being including their race, gender identity and sexual orientation. We stand committed to being actively anti-racist and actively anti-oppressive and we strive to wake up each day as Allies to the Black Lives Matter movement and to the LGTBQ+ community. As coaches, we wish to use our white privilege to lend voice and power to equality while centring and prioritizing the voices of People of Colour. We are committed to remaining on a journey of lifelong learning so that we can contribute to dismantling white supremacy and the systems that benefit many at the expense of the oppression of others. We commit to learning from local leaders and to pay them for their educational labour. As a community of runners that seeks to include everyone, we can and should take responsibility for advocating to elected officials and asking them about what their platform will be for equity and to address racial injustice? And to protect the rights of LGTBQ+ peoples?
We see the whiteness of the running and outdoor community and see that we have a role to play to ensure that everyone sees themselves as welcomed and feels that they belong.
Running and the outdoors should be for everyone.
Please reach out to us to talk further and stay tuned for our upcoming virtual events to support our statement.
