I have seen lateral violence in my community, my workplace, or my relationships. I have felt its effects. I may have contributed to it. I carry no shame for this, because lateral violence is a legacy of colonialism, not a measure of who we are as Peoples. It lives in our social patterns, in our governance, and in the ways our bodies learned to protect themselves across generations of harm.

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I choose to build lateral trust.

 

I will practise transparent communication. I will share information openly and honestly, because trust cannot grow where information is withheld and speculation fills the silence.

I will honour belonging. I will affirm every person’s place in my community, because belonging is inherent and unconditional, and no one’s identity should be policed or their place made conditional on proximity to power.

I will support accountable decision-making. I will hold myself and my leaders responsible for how decisions are made and communicated, because trust depends on people knowing that leadership will act with care and transparency.

I will practise relational repair. When harm happens, I will not look away. When I recognise harm in myself, I will not look away from that either. I will name it with care, because silence protects lateral violence and naming is the first act of rebuilding.

 

I carry this cedar as medicine and as memory. The trees on our lands remember what trust looked like before it was disrupted. In Gitxsan governance, that trust was woven through the sgano: the fabric of reciprocal relationships sustained through the feast system, where public witnessing, accountability, belonging, and repair held communities together as one. That memory is still alive, still standing, still growing. And so is my commitment to rebuild.