Park board OKs ‘colonial audit’

VANCOUVER • The name of Vancouver’s Stanley Park may be up for debate as the city’s park board confronts its colonial past and pursues reconciliation.

The park board approved a “colonial audit” this week outlining actions by the city’s forefathers dating back to 1888, including removing entire First Nations communities from their traditional territories when the city declared jurisdiction over Stanley Park and other beach areas.

The board voted to apologize to the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations for taking away ancestral lands, digging up burial grounds to build roads and playgrounds, and other damaging actions.

Park board chairman Stuart Mackinnon said the board took the first step toward reconciliation by “truth telling,” formally identifying its colonial role, and it will be working with local First Nations to avoid future colonial actions.

“It’s sometimes a very powerful and painful experience but it’s important that we recognize that this is where we come from,” he said. “Stanley Park was the home to many First Nations peoples and over the course of time they were evicted, removed from the park. What we call our western beaches — Kitsilano, Jericho, Locarno and Spanish Banks — were also home to First Nations people, a gathering place and a place for food collection. They were all removed from there as well.”