Gathering of Canoes paddles for Indigenous recognition
City hosted arrival acknowledges history of First Nations is more than 150 years
After many Indigenous people saw little or no reason to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary event on July 1, this week Vancouver highlighted its desire to address a dark colonial history and strive for a brighter future.
On Friday, the Gathering of Canoes brought hundreds of paddlers together in the city as part of a 10day, 70-kilometre journey that began July 5 in Sechelt.
The annual journey is organized by the Pulling Together Canoe Society, and functions as an active practice of truth and reconciliation to address past government wrongdoings.
From Ambleside Beach in West Vancouver about 350 paddlers aboard 30 canoes launched into Burrard Inlet with two curious seals watching as they glided toward Siwash Rock at Stanley Park.
Off the shores of the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations, the paddlers followed traditional protocols, paddling in a circle in front of dignitaries and saluting them with their paddles raised high.
They requested permission to land from Chiefs Wayne Sparrow, Ian Campbell and Maureen Thomas, and were welcomed warmly.
It was the first time the Pulling Together Canoe Society has landed in Vancouver, and it coincided with the city’s Canada 150+ event, in which the “+” symbolizes the importance of its Indigenous history and future on the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
Rhiannon Bennett, president of the Pulling Together Canoe Society, said it was “not just a little thing” for the city to host the special event.
“It’s really acknowledging that our history goes back so much farther, and there’s a real need for the next 150 years to be better,” she said.
She added that her 11-year-old niece put it best: “It’s 150 years of us surviving colonization.”
Bennett, who skippered the Musqueam canoe, said the vessels are “great teachers” and put into practice the core Musqueam teaching of “nuts’amaat” — that people are of one heart and one mind.
“When you’re in the canoe, you can feel it physically,” she said. “Everybody’s pulling together and all the paddles are moving, and the canoe just flies.”
The journey brought out a strong contingent of public servants, including officers from the RCMP and Vancouver and West Vancouver police departments.
Insp. Linda Blake, who joined the prime minister’s protection detail in Ottawa last year, skippered the massive Dmitri canoe.
She said the journeys help people shatter their stereotypes and feelings toward authority figures and Indigenous communities.
“Quite often we don’t really sit down and get to know each other and understand our perspectives, that we’re real people that have families, that have hard days and good days,” she said.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who joined the paddlers, said the city wanted everyone in Vancouver to see the significance of the canoe gatherings, which local First Nations, Inuit and Métis people have participated in for thousands of years.
“It’s recognizing that it’s a much longer history than 150 years, and that we have a big future together now,” he said.