Last night, in a 5-2 vote, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation voted to "to explore opportunities with the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (“the three Nations”) for co-management of parklands within their own respective territories that are currently under Park Board jurisdiction per the Vancouver Charter".
These are my introductory remarks upon moving the motion:
At the start of each of our meetings, in the spirit of reconciliation, we make a land acknowledgment. This is an important statement recognizing where we are. But reconciliation has to be more than just words. There must be action as well as words. In her book ‘Indian in the Cabinet: Speaking truth to power’ the Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould reminds us that “Words, in the work of reconciliation, are also cheap without real action—action that goes to the core of undoing the colonial laws, policies, and practices, and that is based on the real meaning of reconciliation” (176)
The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation is, I believe at the forefront of this work, and I want to thank the entire Decolonization, Arts and Culture team for the incredible work they are doing. I want to thank all of our staff for embracing reconciliation as a foundational principle.
The spirit of this motion is for the Park Board to again put reconciliation into action. The motion calls for the Park Board to initiate a conversation with the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations on ways for them to work with the Park Board on managing parklands within their respective territories that fall under our jurisdiction.
This motion seeks to move closer to reconciliation with past decisions that impact our city today. Many of our parks and beaches are on land that has been integral to the First Peoples of this area for millennia. Villages, camps, food gathering sites, and burial sites are situated on the land we manage and have jurisdiction over. This motion seeks to recognize this fact.
The motion asks staff to explore with the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and report back on recommendations for co-management of parklands within their own respective territories that are currently under Park Board jurisdiction per the Vancouver Charter. The motion calls on our staff, including our legal staff, to work with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations to define what co-management means in the context of Vancouver parklands and once that definition is agreed upon to then develop a plan for co-management.
The motion does not have any pre-determined outcomes, nor does it set out how the process will unfold. It asks our staff to work with the Nations to create this process and then develop how this idea can be fulfilled.
In 2018, when the Park Board approved the Colonial Audit, Chief Ian Campbell of the Squamish Nation stated, “First Nations can be more involved in decision-making, economic opportunities, and environmental stewardship”. This motion seeks to recognize this and act upon it.
Stewardship of our parklands is of ever-increasing importance as we become a denser city and parks and greenspaces become more important to the residents. The First Peoples have been stewards of this land since time immemorial and we newcomers have much to learn. We must seek traditional knowledge, as well as new knowledge, as we tend to these precious spaces.
Jody Wilson-Raybould also states “to address the legacy of colonialism in this country, the colonizers are going to need to learn a lot from those they sought to colonize. Not just to confront their own actions, ignorance, and systemic racism, but to actually make Canadian institutions and modes of governing better by learning the values, principles, and practices that uphold Indigenous governments and societies…” (265)
This motion seeks to be another step in that direction. By acknowledging the land, and by recognizing that colonial ways of doing things are not the only ways of doing things; by seeking help from the indigenous people of this land and working with them, we can have better parks in Vancouver. We can have parks that recognize the natural history and the human history, and prepare our public spaces for a future where all are welcome and that will last millennia to come.
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