Editor’s note: some of the details in this piece may be distressing for readers.

If you go back to the State of the City address, which happened in late May (or if you read our Twitter thread if you couldn’t attend) you may remember we noted Mayor Patrick Johnstone’s remarks regarding a forthcoming report that would include a conversation that would essentially not be good.

Today, the details of what is known to date can be found on the city’s A Year of Truth website. This work comes just a few months after the city declared March 2023 to March 2024 A Year of Truth.

Titled Truth Before Reconciliation: Our Journey, the goal of the work according to the city is to—as best as possible—recognize and honour the Halkomelen speaking peoples of this land.

Both the journal and the ‘A Year of Truth’ website includes some additional information about the local First Nations of this land. Along with the Qayqayt First Nation, the Kwantlen Nation, the Musqueam Band, the Squamish Nation, the Tseil-Watuth Nation, and the Kwikwetlum Nation are now acknowledged on this city page. All-in-all, there are a total of 34 Nations, Bands, and Indigenous governments New Westminster is working to maintain and rebuild relationships with.

Part of the reason for the nearly three dozen groups who are known to have ties to this space is because prior to colonization, the area used to be a prominent fishing village. “From that list [of 34], we’ve narrowed it down to six who have identified New Westminster as part of their traditional territory,” explains Christina Coolidge, the city’s Indigenous relations advisor. “When we have a big project, we send out a sort of FYI to all 34. But we wouldn’t necessarily do consulting work in the same way with all of them.”

Some of the relationships to this land come from traditions carried out by some of the Indigenous peoples: as an example, the people of the Tseil-Watuth used to annually follow a trail to come to the place we now know today as New West. Other groups established connections through kinship ties. “When you have a kinship tie, as an Indigenous person, it gave you the ability to expand your fishing and your hunting territory. You didn’t go into other Nations’ territories without permission, or without a connection.”

As for why the work is called A Year of Truth, Coolidge says that was deliberate.

“It’s important for me to point out that this is ‘A Year of Truth’ and not ‘The Year of Truth’ because our work will continue long after the year is over,” says Coolidge, who recently put together a 10-minute introductory video on this complex topic.

“If we don’t know what we did, how can we make it right?”

While the 94 calls to action as outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada is a good place to start, Coolidge notes that there needs to be an understanding of why these steps need to be taken, and within the context of our city. This is why she says the city worked to put together a summary of the actions that were taken between the years 1860 and 1999, which involved Indigenous peoples. This report arguably sets the basis for the aforementioned journal that was published last month.

“Especially with municipalities, because city development was essentially ground zero for the enforcement of the Indian Act,” Coolidge explains. “The Indian Act was basically a set of laws that governed indigenous people by trying to assimilate us into non-indigenous society. The laws in the Indian Act violated our human rights in many ways.” Some of those examples include the establishment of residential schools, the creation of reserves, and a ban on dancing and potlatches.

“To make reconciliation make sense, we have to understand exactly what we did—as the City of New Westminster—that violated the human rights of local Indigenous people and first nations. We have to answer a whole series of questions before we even start planning for reconciliation.”

The work was a collaborative effort on the part of the City of New Westminster, as well as with its museum and archives staff. The research covered the years 1860 to 1999, and included motions, bylaws, delegations—or public presentations to council—as well as any related documents of council decision-making.

Some of the outlined problematic behaviours from the summary include:

• The removal, displacement, and relocation of Indigenous peoples, particularly during the years 1861 to 1914

• The use, lease, purchase, and sale of reserve lands, with a focus on the years 1889 to 1957

• Regulating Indigenous peoples. Between the years 1860 to 1993, there were efforts to create barriers for Indigenous peoples in the context of city work and/or contracts, as well as through any other economic contracts

• Management of Indigenous bodies, including the use of Poplar Island as a quarantine hospital during the smallpox epidemic, as well as the utilization of council narratives of Indigenous peoples as a “nuisance” or a “financial burden”

• Engagement with Indigenous peoples in this record-keeping has also been complex: there have been discussions in council records regarding some of the wrongs that took place over particular stretches of time, but only in the 1960s are there some efforts to celebrate and commemorate Indigenous peoples

• The general impacts of colonization are outlined, with connections to the development of the railway, as well as the environmental impacts caused by the change in favour of creating a space for the ‘new colony’

“Also, in all of the records of city council meeting minutes, we characterized Indigenous peoples and First Nations as a homogeneous group. This means we just used the term ‘Indian’ when we talked about them. We didn’t identify them as distinct Nations,” says Coolidge. “Now we don’t actually know what First Nations were here at the time…over the years, the city continued to tell its story over and over again so that the First Nations’ history and connection to the land got further and further away, and harder to remember.”

The recent journal outlines the most recent years in the context of New West’s truth and reconciliation journey.

In the journal, the city says that before 2017, it was only engaging with one Nation in regards to land titles, use, practices, customs, and traditions. It acknowledges that as early as 2014 it had heard from other Nations and from other senior levels of government that there were additional claims to the area. By 2018, New West was working to obtain consultation and feedback from local Nations and Bands: examples the city cites include the official community plan, the flood management plan, and the community energy and emissions plan.

“In 2018 the City also began to more overtly express its intent to reach out to neighbouring Nations to better understand their connections to the New Westminster area,” page 12 of the journal reads. “This is the first time the City had taken a measured approach to understanding the intersecting interests of all Nations. By requesting to meet with them at a leadership level there was a hope relationships between these governments and New Westminster could grow and strengthen. This will be a lifelong process, enabled through building trust, respectful engagement and active listening.”

Coolidge adds that there will be all kinds of emotions that come up as this work goes on. She hopes that people will understand why.

“As the work continues, we’re going to have to acknowledge some hard truths about ourselves: this may include highlighting specific areas in New Westminster where Indigenous people were forcibly removed so that the city could establish housing or businesses,” she explains. “Some of those businesses may still be operating today. So we all need to prepare ourselves for some of the feelings, from sadness, to anger, to fear.”

As has previously been the case, Coolidge has cautioned that relationship building will take time. The work, she notes, will involve cautious and deliberate decisions that not only take into account the city’s relationship with each group, but also ensure that the various groups can have a relationship with each other.

How you can play a role

While there will continue to be some difficult parts in this journey, Coolidge says there is plenty to learn and absorb as we walk the path—hopefully together.

“While we're in this sort of really uncomfortable stage of trying to walk back some of those colonial actions that we did, we’re also the lucky ones that get to see it flourish, and see it being born. I think that as long as we're all open and ready and willing, I think that, you know, we'll be okay.”

One of the easiest ways you can participate—aside from reading the summary report and the journal—is to take part in the A Year of Truth Contest. You can share what you’ve learned about the Indigenous experience, and can win prizes for sharing your two cents. Some of those prizes include the opportunity to enjoy soup and bannock with the city’s elder-in-residence, as well as gift certificates to local Indigenous businesses.

While there is an option to look at the journal in its digital form, you can also pick up copies at the following locations:

• New West City Hall

• The Anvil Centre

• New West Public Library locations Uptown and in Queensborough

• Century House

• Queensborough Community Centre

• Massey Theatre

• Douglas College

The library, the Anvil Centre, and City Hall also have window cards available for those who’d like to post them.

There is also an online page that offers most up-to-date notes on making land acknowledgements tied to the City of New Westminster, which explains why the term “Halkomelem-speaking peoples” is used instead of identifying a Indigenous group with a land base within the city limits.

Coolidge notes that there will be further information coming regarding the Nations, Bands, and Indigenous governments who have ties to this land, but that said information is in the midst of being reviewed. Once the review is complete, that information will be made public, and may also be used to adjust the land acknowledgement.

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