Reconciliation

On 05-Jan-2025 the VaMM Reconciliation Committee arranged the following talk by committee member Anna Stewart who discussed her work on the Welcome Post Gateways in Stanley Park.  In Anna’s words; “The commissioning of Point’s works for the Stanley Park site is a particularly important contribution to Indigenous public art in the city, and to the Central Coast Salish People on whose territory the Lower Mainland sits. What we now know as Stanley Park was the territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and the Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh), who had important burial sites, villages and cultural ties to the area, which the city not only failed to recognise when the park was put in, but which was actively overwritten. Villages in the area were razed and shell middens and burials upset to make way for (and in some cases were used as fill to create), roads and paths for the park. The attempt to erase Salish presences from the park, culminated with the eviction of the last remaining Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) inhabitant Rose Cole Yelton in the 1920s. With The Erecting of four Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw Totem Poles from northern Vancouver Island In the area where her house had been, coming to symbolize Indigeneity in Vancouver.”

On June 9th, 2018, Vancouver Monthly Meeting gathered with the Vancouver Unitarian community on unceded Musqueam and Coast Salish territory in a beautiful intergenerational Blanket Exercise. The Blanket Exercise is a teaching tool developed by KAIROS, a network of representatives from ten churches focused on ecological justice and human rights. The exercise was created in partnership with Indigenous advisors, in response to the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which recommended education on Canadian-Indigenous history as a key step towards Reconciliation.

Please click here to read reflections on the exercise:
Blanket Exercise Article v.2

June 9 KBE poster

The Reconciliation Committee would like to invite you to join in a Blanket Exercise on Saturday June 9th, 2018. The event will be held at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver on W 49th avenue at 9:45am, and will be followed by a potluck lunch. All are welcome! We are asking for a suggested donation of $10-20 to help cover costs for those who can afford this.

Due to the dimensions of our space, we have room for 60 participants. We are asking people to reserve their ticket at https://june9quakerunitariankbe.eventbrite.ca by June 4th so we can plan well for the size and needs of the group. This is a family friendly event, (recommended for ages 10 and up, though at the discretion of families). We will happily provide childcare if children are too young to participate. Note: If your child(ren) require(s) care, please select the KBE Child ticket so we can accurately gauge numbers.

The ‘Blanket Exercise’ is a teaching tool developed by KAIROS “to share the historic and contemporary relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada” with settlers through embodied learning. As their website explains, the Exercise was “Developed in response to the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples—which recommended education on Canadian-Indigenous history as one of the key steps to reconciliation… [and] covers over 500 years of history” in a participatory 90 minute workshop. (https://www.kairosblanketexercise.org/)

As participants step onto the Blankets, they step into the roles of Indigenous peoples in Canada, literally walking through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance eras across Turtle Island. Facilitators, representing narrators and European colonizers, guide the journey. Participants embody the experience by reading scrolls and carrying cards that ultimately determine their fate. By engaging mind, body and spirit, the experience builds empathy and understanding of the heavy truths of colonization that continue to impact Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous-settler relations across this land.

Our lead facilitator will be Melaney Gleeson-Lyall from Musqueam Nation, who will also connect this activity to local Indigenous history and her own story. After the exercise, she will also lead a debriefing session in the form of a talking circle so participants have an opportunity to process the experience as a group.

Following the event, participants are encouraged to stay for a potluck lunch and enjoy each others’ company. Please bring an item to share and your appetite!

For further information, questions, or childcare support, contact: Rachel Yordy at / 226-789-5996 or Leslie Kemp at / 604-818-5869.

We look forward to seeing you soon!
Rachel and Leslie – on behalf of the Vancouver Quaker and Unitarian communities