Indigenous Updates: Welcome!

(Time to Read: 3 mins.)

ʔa səy̓em̓ ʔiʔ tə nə siyey̓ə ʔiʔ tə nə siyal̕əxʷeʔ (Respect­ed ones, friends and elders) ʔi ʔə ce:p ʔəw ʔeləy̓ ʔal̕  (Are you all well?)  ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlil­wə­taɬ tə n̓a təməxʷ  (Wel­come to the land of Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Wau­tuth) hay ce:p q̓ə – Thank you all

We acknowl­edge that Van­cou­ver Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege (VCC) is locat­ed on the tra­di­tion­al and unced­ed ter­ri­to­ries of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlil­wə­taɬ (Tsleil-Wau­tuth) peo­ples who have been stew­ards of this land from time immemo­r­i­al.

“With love, we are cre­ative. With it, we march, tire­less­ly. With it, and with it alone, we are able to sac­ri­fice for oth­ers.”

(Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Wau­tuth Nation)

Did you know that VCC’s man­ag­er of Indige­nous Edu­ca­tion Ini­tia­tives, Tanya O’Neill, is the great-grand­daugh­ter of late Chief Dan George? Chief Dan George (July 24, 1899 – Sep­tem­ber 23, 1981) had a long and ful­fill­ing life, sur­round­ed with love and fam­i­ly.

Chief Dan George was a leader and vision­ary for the peo­ple of Tsleil-Wau­tuth, then known as Bur­rard Indi­an Band. Chief Dan George was an actor, author, and musi­cian. He was a suc­cess­ful poet and wrote two books of poet­ry: “My Heart Soars” (1974) and “My Spir­it Soars” (1982).

Chief Dan George also recit­ed his famous work, “Lament for Con­fed­er­a­tion,” at Van­cou­ver, British Columbi­a’s 1967 Cana­di­an Cen­ten­ni­al cel­e­bra­tions in Empire Sta­di­um; the speech was a stir­ring, and unex­pect­ed, indict­ment of colo­nial­is­m’s impact on First Nations peo­ple and helped gal­va­nize native polit­i­cal activism in British Colum­bia and cre­at­ed sup­port and aware­ness among non-natives.

We must learn from our past and his words to lean into rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, decol­o­niza­tion and work togeth­er as one for the bet­ter­ment of all humans.

VCC’s strategic plan for Indigenization 

Indi­g­e­niza­tion at VCC: VCC — Strate­gic Inno­va­tion Plan

VCC’s jour­ney towards decol­o­niza­tion, Indi­g­e­niza­tion, and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion is root­ed in a thought­ful under­stand­ing of his­to­ry, align­ment with the Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Commission’s Calls to Action and the Unit­ed Nation Dec­la­ra­tion of the Rights of Indige­nous Peo­ples (UNDRIP (Unit­ed Nations Dec­la­ra­tion on the Rights of Indige­nous Peo­ples)), an acknowl­edge­ment of past and per­sist­ing racism, and a com­mit­ment to improve edu­ca­tion­al and career out­comes for Indige­nous peo­ple.

BCCAMPUS has cre­at­ed a series of guides for Post-Sec­ondary Insti­tu­tions. The series, Pulling Togeth­er, is wide­ly avail­able and our Indige­nous Employ­ees at VCC are here to help you with under­stand­ing how your con­tri­bu­tions to VCC can be indi­g­e­nized.

You can find this and many oth­er resources at VCC’s library or through this link: Decol­o­niz­ing High­er Edu­ca­tion — Indige­nous Ped­a­gogy — LibGuides at Van­cou­ver Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege (vcc.ca)

We hon­our those who attend­ed Res­i­den­tial schools in Cana­da and their desce­dents who con­tin­ue to heal from these atroc­i­ties; we stand with you. On Sep­tem­ber 30^th each year, we take the time to stop, learn and reflect on how we can do our part to aid in rec­on­cil­i­a­tion: “rec­on­cili-action”.

In con­clu­sion, here is an excerpt from an inter­view com­plet­ed dur­ing the inter­view stages of the work of the Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Com­mis­sion (TRC).

“Togeth­er, Cana­di­ans must do more than just talk about rec­on­cil­i­a­tion; we must learn how to prac­tice rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in our every­day lives—within our­selves and our fam­i­lies, and in our com­mu­ni­ties, gov­ern­ments, places of wor­ship, schools, and work­places. To do so con­struc­tive­ly, Cana­di­ans must remain com­mit­ted to the ongo­ing work of estab­lish­ing and main­tain­ing respect­ful rela­tion­ships.” (p. 17)

Meet our Indigenous Team at VCC

At Van­cou­ver Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, our Indige­nous Team includes edu­ca­tors, facil­i­ta­tors, and man­agers from a vari­ety of expe­ri­ences, nations, and back­grounds.
We’re here to help. Reach out to us at indigenous@vcc.ca.