We respectfully acknowledge the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples on whose homelands the POLIS Project at the University of Victoria is situated, and whose relationships with the lands and waters continue to this day. We also respectfully acknowledge the unceded territories of other Coast Salish communities and Indigenous nations across B.C., where some of our team members live and work remotely.
POLIS Statement on Reconciliation, 2021
In June 2021, after the discovery of the mass burial site at Kamloops residential school, our POLIS team issued a statement. When we wrote it, we were particularly informed by the words of the Honourable Murray Sinclair, who dedicated his life to fostering understanding, compassion, and reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous people in Canada and SȾHENEP (Adam Olsen), who we have worked with at POLIS and who was, at that time, a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.
We also sought guidance from Penelakut Elder Raymond Tony Charlie who generously and candidly shared his residential school experience with us and accepted our offer of support to celebrate completion of his book In the Shadow of the Red Brick Building (2022). The book includes an original poem by Elder Charlie, who gave us permission to share it in poster form before the book was published so it could reach and inspire others. The image on the poster (contributed by Kelly Bannister) is of Penelakut and Thetis Islands, close to the location of the former Kuper Island Industrial School that was attended by Elder Charlie. Our learning was deepened through co-hosting Elder Charlie’s book launch and celebration.
POLIS also received guidance from Elder Charlie along with Elder Dr. Florence James and Rocky James through an online Listening Circle, hosted by POLIS and the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies in June 2021.
Our Ongoing Commitment
At POLIS, we are called to continually examine our approaches and practices to identify what reconciliation requires of us, what needs to change, and how.
Our team is committed to supporting meaningful and ethical reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, guided by:
- The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Reports and Calls to Action.
- The laws, ethics, and cultural protocols of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in Canada, and Indigenous peoples in other parts of the world.
- The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
- The Canadian United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
- The B.C. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).
We have reviewed the TRC Calls to Action and continue to take to heart advice from many Indigenous leaders, including those who are members of and advisors to our POLIS team. We commit to regularly revisiting the following questions, both as individuals and as a team:
- What more do I/we need to learn?
- What can I/we start doing?
- What can I/we continue doing?
- What do I/we need to stop doing?
We call on ourselves to continue the difficult learning about the shameful history of our country. If we want to be part of healing and catalyzing real change, we must commit to remembering these painful stories every day, not just on days when tragedies dominate news headlines. And we must recognize that real change happens gradually in many small ways.
We are committed to ethical listening and ethical communicating as underlying values of the work we do. We are aware of the limitations of language, particularly English as a dominant colonial language, and the responsibility we hold to the words we use. As such, we strive to communicate with thoughtfulness and care—and with an awareness that when we communicate, we are in relationship with those who will hear or read our words. When it comes to understanding and communicating about Indigenous Knowledge, we understand that written words are limited and insufficient. We know we won’t always get it right, but we are deeply committed to keep trying, to respectfully repair our mistakes, and to constantly strive to learn what it means to do things in a good way.
Relevant Links
POLIS-Convened Gatherings
Listening Circle with Coast Salish Elders Florence James and Raymond Tony Charlie
June 30, 2021
Hosted by the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies and POLIS Project on Ecological Governance.
“In the Shadow of the Red Brick Building” Book Launch Celebration
June 2, 2022
Hosted by the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies and POLIS Project on Ecological Governance.
Reconciling with Water: (Re)imagining and (Re)storying our Relations to Water
June 18-19, 2025
Hosted by the UVic Department of Indigenous Education, the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance, and the Centre for Global Studies with generous support from the Balance Co-Lab: Collaboration for Sustainable Communities, the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS), and UVic Faculty of Education.
Publications
Pathways and Partnerships: A Framework for Collaboration and Reconciliation in the Cowichan Watershed
January 21, 2019
Published in partnership by Cowichan Tribes, Cowichan Valley Regional District, the Cowichan Watershed Board, and the POLIS Water Sustainability Project
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About the banner image: The featured feather design was created by Carey Newman Hayalthkin’geme (Kwakwaka’wakw/Coast Salish) for Orange Shirt Day in 2017. The design—a grouping of smaller feathers to create a larger one—is meant to represent that children come in all shapes and sizes, and they’re all important. In 2019, Newman incorporated the rainbow colours as a way for the design to be more inclusive of LGBTQ2S+ peoples. Newman is also the creator of the Witness Blanket, a 12-metre-long sculpture comprised of 600 objects and artifacts he collected from Indian residential schools across Canada. He is the current Audain Professor of Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest at the University of Victoria.
