November 2022
A Start to our regular reporting through our website
The South Island Indigenous Authority Society has been operating since early 2019, but the idea of the Authority has been around for decades. SIIA is working to bring this vision, of exercising our inherent right to provide services to our families, children, and communities, to completion.
This blog is our first attempt at reporting out on a regular basis through our website. We want to use this blog as one of our ways of updating our broader community about interesting and significant things happening at SIIA.
We have a great team of contractors supporting the work that is done at SIIA. These people are incredibly committed to the work we are doing and do their best to bring their sense of community into everything they do.
We completed two half day strategic planning sessions with our Board of Directors at the Songhees Wellness Centre on October 27th and 28th. While the sessions were designed mostly to hear from our Board of Directors, the SIIA contractors also contributed to the success of the discussions.
Here are some of the words shared by our people during the discussions:
It is amazing to see this journey we are on with SIIA – because it’s not bringing up something new – it is taking what we’ve always known and breathing life back into it. Margaret Charlie, Songhees, contractor.
The big thing that keeps me at this table is the unity of the South Island Nations – we are stronger together. We are so much better when we are working on this together. Remi Paul, Tsartlip, contractor.
Engaging communities first starts with building trust and relationships. Shana Sylvester, Tsawout, contractor.
One of the ways we have added to our team during our first few years has been by bringing on students from UVic on either short-term contracts or practicums. We have benefitted from our relationship with the UVic Indigenous Law program, whose students have given us an expertise in Indigenous law as well as their overall skill at engaging community. Their contributions have been a great benefit to our communities and our team.
Honouring law students Shelby Reed and Camas Ussery at the end of their four-month contract term, August 2022.
One of the highlights for me of the past few months was the Gathering of Aunties. We had aunties representing almost all of our Nations present to share their wisdom and knowledge on traditional ways of families taking care of their children within their communities. The conversations, facilitated by Bruce Underwood with help from Margaret Charlie, were rich and meaningful. I raise my hands to the Aunties for their contributions to our communities and to our work.
SIIA intends to expand on this work by bringing together a larger group of Aunties from our communities, including the diverse urban Indigenous communities, and to include voices from outside of our territories. This work will expand on our vision and ensure we are representing the voices and cultures of all Indigenous peoples living within the territory.
SIIA is very busy at the moment, with community consultations and work on service delivery, service quality, and our own legislation. We will post monthly updates on our work, and we intend to have other team members share their work through this blog.
Thank you for having the interest to read this blog. We look forward to communicating more in the future and welcome any comments or questions.
Hysh’ka Siem / Kleco Kleco
Chuck Eamer, Interim Executive Director, South Island Indigenous Authority