Written for Raven by Rae Mombourquette, Tlingit Acadian citizen of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation

The Raven Recycling Society is a non-government organization and social enterprise that operates and is managed on the ancestral homelands of the Tagish Kwan, and within the Traditional Territories of the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council and Kwanlin Dün First Nations in Whitehorse, Yukon. Our recycling depot resides close to the banks of Chu Nìikwän, the Southern Tutchone phrase referring to the specific stretch of the Yukon River within the Whitehorse area meaning “water, face, moonlight” (Adamson 2019). We acknowledge that the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council and the Kwanlin Dün First Nation understand their history in what is now known as Whitehorse, since time immemorial and that the two Nations have had, and continue to have, a spiritual, cultural, and economic connection to the land and resources of this area. We acknowledge that these governments and their citizens contribute significantly to the city’s social, cultural, spiritual, and economic prosperity (City of Whitehorse 2021).

Raven Recycling, further acknowledges concepts of waste management as part of a colonial paradigm and form of land occupation that has contributed to barriers that have discouraged Yukon’s First Nations from accessing traditional lands and from participating in their cultures, languages and traditional laws. Guided by the principles of the Truth and Reconciliation call to action number 92, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, we aim towards establishing reconciliatory actions within our mandate in education, outreach and advocacy.

• Adamson, Shirley (2019). Personal dialogue on Southern Tutchone placenames translated to English.

• City of Whitehorse (2021). Whitehorse 2040: Official Community Plan. Retrieved from: https://www.whitehorse.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Whitehorse-2040-Official-Community-Plan-1.pdf