We acknowledge that parks and protected areas in Canada were created by colonial institutions and, in their creation, often evicted and excluded Indigenous Peoples and banned traditional hunting, ceremonies, and land-based practices. Indeed, ‘wilderness’ is a Westernized concept that separates people from land and goes against Indigenous cultures and values. Colonization, residential schools, and cultural genocide have consequences, which continue to cause barriers for Indigenous Peoples today.   

We strive to remove barriers by providing free education and stewardship experiences for Indigenous youth, visiting Indigenous schools, working directly with Elders and Knowledge Keepers, and incorporating culturally relevant teachings into our programs. 

CPAWS Southern Alberta is committed to taking reconciliation action through our conservation and engagement initiatives. Our outdoor education experiences include living, personalized land acknowledgements that engage participants in gratitude for nature and acknowledgement of the traditional lands we are learning on. We strive to bring Indigenous voices into our programs through videos, voice clips, language, stories, and guest speakers. Any story, teaching, or activity we share has been gifted to us for sharing by an Indigenous teacher.  

We acknowledge that People of Colour, Black, and Indigenous (BIPOC) people experience racism and exclusion in the outdoors.

We know that BIPOC communities are under-represented in outdoor recreation and conservation. CPAWS actively partners with organizations that work to support equity-deserving groups such as the Multicultural Trail Network to create more outdoor opportunities for BIPOC communities. We strive to ensure that our program and communication media represent a diversity of races and ethnicities.   

Our staff participates in ongoing decolonization and anti-racism training. We are committed to learning and growing from our mistakes.

We will use your chosen names and pronouns and be thoughtful about how genders are represented in our teachings. We work to ensure that our program and communication media represent a diversity of gender identities. We strive to inform volunteers if event locations have all-gender bathrooms or not. Our education staff will not separate groups into boys and girls. We don’t need to know anyone’s sex or gender identity to offer these safer options; we do this for all people. 

CPAWS Southern Alberta is proud to partner with Skipping Stone to offer opportunities for trans and gender diverse folks to enjoy nature in a safe and affirming way. 

We recognize there are unique barriers to accessing the outdoors for people with physical and/or developmental disabilities.  We are pleased to work with you to accommodate your groups' needs. We can modify locations, routes, pace, activities, and more to ensure everyone has the opportunity to join our experiences in a safe, inclusive, and fun manner.  

CPAWS Southern Alberta is proud to partner with community groups like the Developmental Disabilities Resource Centre (DDRC) and AdaptABLE Outdoors to increase access to nature connection. We were humbled in 2023 to receive an Inclusion Award for our commitment to outdoor accessibility from the DDRC as part of their Everybody Belongs initiative.