Squamish Nation calls on West Van council to restore land acknowledgement

The Squamish Nation says a decision by West Vancouver to stop doing land acknowledgements before council meetings is disrespectful.

According to elected chairperson Khelsilem, there are two issues at hand.

One is around the removal of the land acknowledgement itself, but perhaps more importantly, the issue is that the Nation wasn’t consulted about the decision.

“And so that’s the concern that also is really important for us, which is that there wasn’t the call, there wasn’t the contact, there wasn’t the relationship, and if this is the beginning of this new term of council, what does that say for the rest of the relationship, and how is that going to play out if this is the beginning of that?” Khelsilem asked.

“Our council’s been very disappointed at the choice as well as what seems to be a very unilateral, opportunistic approach to making the decision,” Khelsilem told CityNews.

West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager announced on Nov. 14, at the start of a council meeting, that land acknowledgements would appear written on the agenda and not necessarily be read aloud before meetings going forward.

“It has been tradition at a number of gatherings of many types to read an acknowledgement to our friends and neighbours, the First Nations, and I would like to do this tonight. And in the future, the council has discussed this, it is our hope that we have a meaningful relationship with the First Nations and that we do something more than just words. So these words will be printed on future agendas but not necessarily read,” the mayor said.

Sager went on to say that he did “not want anyone to take it as any degree of disrespect by the fact that we will print this on future agendas and not necessarily read them out.”

“We trust that our First Nations friends will respect that decision as well,” he added.

Squamish Nation asks for meeting with West Van council

However, that is not the case. Khelsilem says the Squamish Nation has written to council, requesting a meeting to discuss the matter further.

“It’s not really just the act or not the act of saying or not doing something, so really what this means is that there hasn’t been that overture to the Nation to build a relationship and to continue something that the Nation had supported initially, that West Van mayor and council had consulted us on when they had started doing it.”

In an interview with CityNews Monday, the mayor said council meant no disrespect and that the city would like to meet with the First Nation.

“We’d like to set up a meeting with them and talk about the things that we can do to work with them, cooperatively, that have real meaning and that aren’t just words. We would like a very strong relationship with the Squamish First Nation,” the mayor said.

Sager says looking back, he would have consulted with the Nation if he could do things over. However, he hopes they can move forward together.

Khelsilem says he hopes this ends up becoming a teachable moment.