On Thursday June 8th, SIIA’s Urban Community Engagement Lead, Jenna Lancaster (?IXC’AMGILAKW) hosted an urban Kwakwaka’wakw engagement event at the Mungo Martin House in Thunderbird Park. Members of our SIIA team had the opportunity to witness the event and meet members of the urban Kwakwaka’wakw community while enjoying a meal and cultural sharing within the big house.
Jenna organized this event to begin building connections between SIIA and urban Indigenous communities, to introduce SIIA’s work to participants, and to ensure that the voices of the urban Kwakwaka’wakw community are being represented in the legislation that SIIA is developing. The urban Kwakwaka’wakw community is just one of many communities that the engagement team will be connecting with throughout this process.
Brianna Bear opened the ceremony with some words of welcome and Jenna’s uncle, hereditary chief George Shaughnessy, provided some words about the importance of this work. He told the story of how Jenna and her sister once sat in the same big house as little children, and expressed pride that Jenna is now a role model for younger generations and is doing good work to ensure that young ones are protected and cared for. He spoke of the feelings that urban Indigenous people experience when they can’t seem to fit in with community members who live on their traditional territory. He expressed the importance of staying connected to culture and passing cultural teachings on to the next generation of urban Indigenous youth.
“I can’t change the world, I can only focus on supporting my own family. But I hope that I can lead by example and inspire others to support their families as well”
George Shaughnessy
Our team had the pleasure of witnessing and participating in some cultural sharing that consisted of: a paddle dance; salmon dance; Gali’su’kwala which is a Musgamagw-Dzawadaenuxw ladies’ dance; and a fun song to end the night where everyone was invited to join.
It was an honour to witness and partake in such a special event and SIIA is grateful to have the opportunity to meaningfully engage with the urban Kwakwaka’wakw communities as we continue on the journey of developing legislation that represents the values and needs of all children and families living on the South Island.
