failed fund map

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land acknowledgement

this land acknowledgement is by the person who has created this map for the failedfund. it represents the values of the failedfund too.

i start by following the teaching of Jill Carter, Indigenous leader, researcher and theatre worker at the University of Toronto (Canada), and of Alvis Cole, Toronto-based Métis 2-spirit theatre artist. they taught me about entering into relationship and communication with others.

this then starts with an acknowledgement of some of my history.

i identify as a white priviledged first-generation settler in canada. i hold german ancestry on one side of my family that i haven't researched.

my priviledges include double citizenship, university education, financial stability at the moment that provides me with the food i need, and a roof.

as a settler in canada, i acknowledge my discomfort with the 1787 Toronto Purchase, the 1805 Indenture, the 1923 Williams Treaties, and possibly also with the 2010 $145 million settlement between Canada and the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation. all these imposed settlers' concept of land ownership and extinguished rights. in that sense, i consider that we are on a territory that was never considered through an equal nation-to-nation relationship and never ceded.

i acknowledge that i largely favour public land ownership, but that, be it private or public, especially in T'karonto where the city has not started a decolonizing process, land ownership does not recognize the spirit and concepts with which the land is considered and cared for by Indigenous communities, Indigenous philosophy and knowledge.

i acknowledge that maps such as this one have served and still serve purposes of colonization.

this map has been created with decolonization in mind, but still, i acknowledge that i do not know what a decolonized map looks like and if by principle a "decolonized map" can exist at all.

i acknoweldge that decolonizing my way of thinking, my priviledges, my relationships to others is way more complex and destabilizing than i expected.

i acknowledge to have knowledge that T'karonto is in the "Dish With One Spoon Territory".

i apologize for the time that decolonizing myself is taking.

the Dish With One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers included have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect.

the "Dish", or sometimes it is called the "Bowl", represents what is now southern Ontario, from the Great Lakes to Quebec and from Lake Simcoe into the United States. we all eat out of the Dish, all of us that share this territory, with only one spoon. that means that we have to share the responsibility of ensuring the dish is never empty, and includes taking care of the land and of the creatures we share it with. importantly, there are no knives at the table: we must keep the peace.

i acknowledge my limited capacity in respectfully enacting this treaty.

land

"i failed" has a bad connotation.

the failedfund however suggests to turn this around and instead of saying "i failed" to say "i have been failed".

why?

well, there is a difference between a mistake and a failure.

when you make a mistake, it is that you do something, but understand later that you could have done it differently and you would have been happy to do so.

when you fail, it is that you did your best but the system rejected your proposition.

it is in fact the system that failed you.

failed

why is the fund called the
failedfund?
because it is an extension of precarihousingthemap which was led by disabled and housing-challenged artist claude wittmann, and it is dedicated to all disabled artists who have been or who are failed by the toronto housing system.

how did it start?
failedfund started with an anonymous donation by a toronto-based invisibly disabled artist.

how come that a disabled artist can have enough money to make a donation?
here is the story. the donor artist lived at 25 bishop tutu boulevard. 25 bishop tutu is a building owned by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC).

there, in 2021, they suffered medically attested health-damaging noise overload. the 24/7 deep renovation of lakeshore boulevard was shaking their floor and was very loud. the heavy machines and the workers took a short break in the afternoons, but the work lasted all nights and mornings.

despite it being their human right for accomodation, the artist received a rejection by TCHC of their request for a transfer to another unit. even if shocked by this refusal, the artist did not have the energy to file a human rights complaint. they then got sick, couch surfed and sublet for 3 months and, after one of their dear friends had found a new place, moved out.

shortly after they had signed their new lease, a TCHC manager contacted them to acknowledge TCHC's mistake and, over a zoom call, he offered a small financial compensation.

the artist tried to get TCHC to designate this money as a recognition of the pain and suffering endured, but TCHC refused. they said instead that it is a return or rents paid. the amount is equivalent to three rents.

the artist received the money in november 2024 and they decided to dedicate it to the
failedfund

fund