At last week’s council meeting, local artist Pauline LeBel noted that Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) calls on Municipalities to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a framework for their reconciliation efforts, and applauded BIM’s efforts at reconciliation so far. The library’s Tina Nielsen and the Bowen Island Arts Council’s (BIAC) Jacqueline Massey joined Le Bel, stating their organizations’ commitment to the reconciliation process.
Nielsen told council that she’s been considering how the Bowen Island Library could move forward the 94 actions recommended by the TRC ever since it released its 2015 report, “Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future.”
“The way I’m thinking about it is, the TRC is really asking for a sweeping change in the view of our country. You can do that as an individual, but you also need to do that at the government and organizational level,” said Nielsen. “We at the library need to educate ourselves, we can’t offer programming to the community on this unless we’ve done the work ourselves.”
Nielsen told council that Reconciliation Canada offers many great workshops, but they are expensive. She offered that if other groups on Bowen are interested, resources could be pooled.
Jacqueline Massey told council that over the years, BIAC has made an effort to include First Nations culture and heritage in its programming, but at a recent conference held by Arts BC, the importance of this work was re-enforced.
“The BC Arts Council put arts councils in the province on notice to review and embed the TRC recommendations in our activities,” said Massey. “Doing so will be a measure of our eligibility for support going forward.”
With this in mind, as well as the awareness of the power of the arts in enabling a visceral sense of connection, understanding and sharing, Massey said BIAC has entrenched a commitment to explore the TRC recommendations in Bowen Island’s revised Cultural Master Plan. She says she is very excited about working with local First Nations and all of the Bowen community in developing relationships and initiatives that celebrate Canada’s indigenous cultures.
