Friday August 1st marked Emancipation Day, a day of remembrance, resilience, and reflection.
As a descendant of enslaved Africans from Carriacou, Grenada, Emancipation Day is personal. It calls me to honour the generations before me who survived the brutalities of chattel slavery, and to carry forward the legacy of resistance, community care, and liberation that they forged in the face of unimaginable violence. My family’s story is shaped by colonialism, first through the transatlantic slave trade, and then through the forced displacement that followed. Like many Afro-Caribbean families, colonization uprooted us, pushing us to migrate in search of dignity, safety, and opportunity. That journey eventually led us to Canada, a country that often positions itself as “multicultural” or “benevolent,” but one that also has its own legacy of slavery and systemic anti-Black racism.
Many don’t know that slavery existed in Canada for over 200 years. Enslaved African and Indigenous peoples were sold, traded, and forced to labour here, not just in the southern U.S. or the Caribbean. Black communities have been organizing for generations to make this truth visible, and to demand that it be named, remembered, and addressed.
Emancipation Day is not just about the past, it’s about the systems we’ve inherited and the futures we are trying to build.
African Ancestral Acknowledgements
At Tamarack, we believe community change is only possible when we name injustice and actively work toward equity. This Emancipation Day, our teams created their own African Ancestral Acknowledgements, paying tribute to those who were brought to these lands as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and celebrating the powerful contributions of ancestors of African descent. View our organizational community acknowledgements for more information.
This month, we’re inviting our network to reflect on what it means to start your equity journey. Whether you're just beginning or recommitting to this work, equity isn’t a checklist, it’s a practice. It starts with learning, listening, and locating ourselves in systems that advantage some while marginalizing others. It requires humility, accountability, and a deep commitment to transformation.
For me, equity work isn’t abstract. It’s about my ancestors. It’s about my family. It’s about refusing to forget and choosing to build a future rooted in justice. As we move through August, we invite you to reflect on where your journey begins, and to remember that equity doesn’t start with perfection, it starts with a decision to show up differently.
This Emancipation Day, and throughout the month, may we honour the past by shaping a more liberated future, together.
– Shanese Green, Equity, Anti-Racism and Reconciliation at the Tamarack Institute
Seeds of Transformation: Achieve your Equity Goals
Not sure how to begin, assess, or strengthen equity work?
Seeds of Transformation is a practical tool to help you move from values to action. Designed with nonprofits and collaboratives in mind, it offers practical steps to embed equity, reconciliation, and belonging into your community efforts.
Free Webinar: Loving Lessons from our Equity, Reconciliation and Belonging Journey
September 24, 2025
12:00-1:00 PM ET
What does equity look like in practice?
Join Tamarack staff, board, and community members for an honest conversation on what worked, what challenged us, and what helped us grow. Gain insights, tools, and practical takeaways you can apply to your own journey.
Looking for a supportive space to grow your equity practice?
These four virtual workshops offer hands-on, reflective, and supportive learning environments for those looking to deepen their equity and belonging practice in community change work. Facilitated by experienced equity leaders, each session blends real-world lessons with space for connecting, learning, and accountability.
Reflections from a Land-Based Sustainability Symposium
Tamarack’s Rochelle Ignacio reflects on the Plants and Planting for the Future Symposium in Barbados. Discover how people, place, and policy converge to protect ancestral foodways and biocultural diversity.
In the spirit of respect, reciprocity and truth, we honour and acknowledge that our work occurs across Turtle Island (North America), which has been the ancestral home of Indigenous Peoples of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit descent.
Stay in touch with us
Tamarack Institute, University of Waterloo, 140 Westmount Road North, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G6, Canada
