The Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) will be ramping up honourary efforts this Truth and Reconciliation Day with an inaugural luncheon event and ceremony.
The first of its kind to take place “in over a hundred years,” the event will initially be open to members, with a special call for Elders who live off the reserve and away from the community, said elected council member Sxwíxwtn (Wilson Williams). There will be a select few specially invited names, including North and West Vancouver mayors and council.
Set to take place on the Sen̓áḵw construction site near Kitsilano in Metro Vancouver, it will see 400 construction workers, 50 per cent of whom are Indigenous, don an orange shirt designed by a Squamish Nation artist. Shirts will also be provided to all guests.
Williams, acting as MC for the afternoon’s event, will be joined by Mindy Wight, CEO of the Nation’s Nch’Kay Development Corporation, Musqueam Indian Band Chief Wayne Sparrow, and a number of other Squamish Nation speakers.
Running from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Friday, Sept. 27, guests can expect drumming performances, speeches, food and prayers.
A large facet of the event, said Williams, will be honouring residential school survivors from the Squamish and other Nations. An honouring ceremony will see the survivors blanketed while the Nation shares songs, speeches and acknowledges those survivors who have passed on.
“In every indigenous community throughout Canada, we’re on this healing journey. We don’t have many residential school survivors left, and this is part of their healing journey, to be recognized and acknowledged,” said Williams.
“That’s not just as a survivor, it’s for them to know they’re truly valued and loved and respected as indigenous people.”
Williams said the event, and Truth and Reconciliation Day as a whole, is an opportunity for people to honour the survivors in the way they deserve, in a way that is a far cry from how they were treated when they were enrolled in such schools, and weren’t “allowed to practice their culture or be truly themselves,” said Williams.
“As indigenous people they weren’t allowed to speak their own language, they weren’t allowed to practise ceremonies. All those things were against the law, and they lived a life of confusion,” he said.
“We’re here to empower them and hold them up in big, big honour by blanketing them.”
The event is part of the “healing and medicine” the Nation wants the survivors to receive, he said.
The first of many Sen̓áḵw Truth and Reconciliation Day events, Williams said he hopes to see it blossom over the years and grow to accommodate the general public and visitors to Vancouver.
“We’re going to ask everyone who’s in attendance to be a witness, to share what they saw, and to hopefully attract more people,” he said.
“Not just because it’s a Squamish Nation event, but because we’re in a real time of pride coming back to our Indigenous communities, and for us to do it in our village of Sen̓áḵw is overwhelming, to say the least.”
Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
