Stories

A moment to pause and reflect on Indigenous Peoples’ Day

June 2024

This Indigenous Peoples Day, we are taking a moment to pause and reflect on our work towards repair over the last year; on how and when we have shown up and where we need to put in more energy moving forward.

The Sierra Club BC team and partners participating in an Indigenous Law workshop series led by the University of Victoria’s Indigenous Law Research Unit. This event was hosted on We Wai Kai territory (Photo by Todd Biderman).

Acknowledging our history & path forward

Over the 50+ year history of Sierra Club BC (SCBC), some of our actions have harmed Indigenous peoples and communities. For example, SCBC has sometimes acted through a worldview that understands humans to be separate from and harmful to nature and advocated for protected areas that displaced Indigenous people from their lands, harming them and the land.

As we reflect on our history, we are asking ourselves: what obligations come from our role in causing this harm? Accountability means more than just acknowledging harm; it requires active participation in reconciliation.

We have begun to learn the importance of engaging with Indigenous ways of knowing. This includes but is not limited to a narrow understanding of what is of value, what is living, what can be owned, what obligations we have, who has authority and power, and what happens when conflict arises.

An important foundation of this learning is broadening our understanding of Indigenous legal orders, which are not always given as much authority as Canadian laws. However, SCBC believes Indigenous legal orders are critical and have an important role to play within the environmental sector.

We are guided in this work by the generous teachings of the Indigenous Law Research Unit at the University of Victoria. This involves working with stories from the lands and waters where we live. These stories are legal resources and through them we are making meaning, asking questions, and learning to see law operate around us in the landscapes we move through.

Now, every time that we walk through an old-growth forest, an urban park, or look across Burrard inlet, stories that have been shared with us come to mind and shape our interactions, obligations, and understandings of these lands and waters.

As we reflect on our work on Indigenous Peoples Day, we know we have a lot to do to be accountable. At SCBC we affirm our commitment to our obligations to care for the lands, waters, and people of this land, even when this is not easy. We invite you to join us in this work so we might all create a more just and brighter future.