Like most modern political meetings, the Union of B.C. Municipalities session on Indigenous reconciliation began with acknowledgements of traditional territories on which the Vancouver convention centre is located.
Those gestures are significant, local government delegates were told in the mostly online event Tuesday (Sept. 14), but they donB次元官网网址檛 get the real work done in overcoming the colonial relationship between cities and towns and neighbouring Indigenous people.
The session included Murray Sinclair, the former judge and senator who chaired CanadaB次元官网网址檚 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, B.C. Indigenous Relations Minister Murray Rankin and John Jack, chair of the Alberni-Clayquot Regional District.
Jack is in a unique position on relations between Indigenous and local government communities, because he is also a councillor for the Huu-ay-aht First Nations on Vancouver Island. He explained that ceremonies and B次元官网网址渢heatricsB次元官网网址� are important to Indigenous people, because historically they didnB次元官网网址檛 have contracts or written language. Agreements on trade or mutual protection were worked out B次元官网网址渂y the light of the big house fire,B次元官网网址� and people needed to see them happen.
Modern treaties and agreements need the details worked out, and the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District did that by adding permanent Indigenous positions to its board of directors.
B次元官网网址淚n order to pursue those goals and achieve them, they have to have power,B次元官网网址� Jack said. B次元官网网址淓conomic and business reconciliation provide the resources for those first nations to actually achieve those goals. Adding four voting members to our board has changed the complete conversation, and that means that we will always be conducting our business differently from here on in, because the votes are different now.B次元官网网址�
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Rankin described a July 2021 agreement with the city of Mission where the province turned over 60 hectares of Crown land to the Matsqui, Sumas and LeqB次元官网网址櫭�:mel Nations. The property, next to the grounds of the St. MaryB次元官网网址檚 Residential School, comes with a 50-year lease on most of it for the City of Mission to manage as a park and recreation area, with the remainder used for housing and economic development.
B次元官网网址淚 think it is unique for a municipality to be a full partner in a reconciliation agree like that,B次元官网网址� Rankin said.
Murray Sinclair speaks to reconciliation panel: "I started school with about 45 fellow Indigenous students, and I was the only one to graduate from high school"
B次元官网网址� Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc)
Sinclair touched on the history of Indigenous relations and the federal reserve system, where people were denied traditional use of animal and other resources and had to have the federal Indian AgentB次元官网网址檚 permission to leave their reserves.
The lack of education and other opportunities led to the current situation where 62 per cent of Indigenous people in Canada live in urban areas, he said.
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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