Our Purpose
Our work is to imagine equitable futures and do everything we can to make them real.
Our vision is collective liberation from systemic oppression.
Our mission is to be deeply connected and grounded in the stories of those most impacted by systems of oppression and to write new narratives together.
When we care enough to imagine alternatives and believe they are truly possible, we simultaneously need to grieve for how that alternative doesn’t yet exist for us. This work requires solidarity with those in resistance with the status quo.
Our Values
In 2023, we set 5 core values.
Those values are:
- Story
- Care
- Humility
- Risk
- Abundance
These are not the values that come easiest to us, they are the ones we have to work at practicing and can easily toggle between too much and too little of each value. It is our work to find balance and to work through hard conversations and decisions to find that place.
Each value on its own is important to our organization and sometimes even more when they intersect, and sometimes the most important work is when they are in conflict with one another and we have to navigate through that tension.
Story – we believe in the power for stories to change our perceptions of reality and we seek ways to create space for stories to be told and shared in pursuit of collective liberation
Care – we believe how we connect and respond to one another is the greatest way to build and maintain the trust needed to dismantle systems of oppression
Humility – we believe that acknowledging that we are stronger together than apart and that no easy answer is going to solve the problems we are facing is one of the first steps towards building equitable futures
Risk– we believe that we must challenge perceptions of safety and security and push beyond our individual and collective comfort to secure belonging and inclusion for everyone
Abundance – we believe that scarcity mindsets cause us to operate from a place of fear rather than a place of love and that we need to complicate colonial structures and characteristics of white supremacy that reinforce hierarchies and competition
We believe by committing to these values, we are developing new pathways and artifacts as a nonprofit organization while embracing room for learning and growth.
Our Services
Our Projects
Land Acknowledgement
The Department of Imaginary Affairs is situated on the land and waterways that have known human activity for thousands of years, long before it was ever called Canada. We are extremely privileged to be able to live and work on this land and owe gratitude and thanks to every caretaker of the land – past, present and future. We operate on the land within the Dish With One Spoon Covenant. This agreement made amongst Indigenous Nations governs how to share the resources that the land and water provide. At the heart of the agreement is the image of a single dish that holds all the bounty and one spoon to draw from that dish. The agreement that everyone will take only what they need, always ensuring that something is left for those who follow. The Dish With One Spoon agreement remains in effect to this day. We are all responsible to live by these terms.
This is an ongoing and active practice.