THE FUTURE OF INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: ANCESTRAL GOVERNANCE, ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP, LANGUAGE REVIVAL, AND CULTURAL VIBRANCY.
Developed from the Renewing Relations project, this collaborative project with Kumugwe Cultural Society and Victoria University of Wellington, was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council 2023-25.
Team: Bryony Onciul, Andy Everson, Keisha Everson, Awhina Tamarapa, (Wedlidi Speck 2023-24).
The project focused on Indigenous rights and priorities. Working in the ancestral territories of the Pentlatch, E’ikʷsən, and K’ōmox (Vancouver Island, Canada) and Māori Ngāti Toa Rangatira (Aotearoa, New Zealand), the project did in-depth work with ancestral leadership, place-based origin stories, environmental stewardship, cultural societies, dance groups, and language
specialists. It addressed four of the most pressing issues for local Indigenous communities: 1) the renewal of ancestral governance, 2) environmental stewardship, 3) language revival, and 4) cultural revitalisation. The project took a practical approach to raising awareness of customary rights and responsibilities to the land, ocean, and ecosystems. It helped reconnect community members with ancestral knowledge and ties to different places and kinships. The work aimed to be decolonial in practice, led by local needs and priorities. It was co-designed to help overcome knowledge lost to many community members though colonisation and cultural genocide, as documented in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Reports 2015. The project built on the team members' independent work on decolonisation, cultural renewal and healing, and their international networks. The project supports an ongoing relationship of cultural exchange between Vancouver Island and Aotearoa. Working across cultures provided different models for cultural and language renewal, leadership and governance, and strategies to negotiate Indigenous-settler relationships. In Aotearoa and British Columbia, UNDRIP has been adopted into law, and is now being measured against attainment goals.
specialists. It addressed four of the most pressing issues for local Indigenous communities: 1) the renewal of ancestral governance, 2) environmental stewardship, 3) language revival, and 4) cultural revitalisation. The project took a practical approach to raising awareness of customary rights and responsibilities to the land, ocean, and ecosystems. It helped reconnect community members with ancestral knowledge and ties to different places and kinships. The work aimed to be decolonial in practice, led by local needs and priorities. It was co-designed to help overcome knowledge lost to many community members though colonisation and cultural genocide, as documented in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Reports 2015. The project built on the team members' independent work on decolonisation, cultural renewal and healing, and their international networks. The project supports an ongoing relationship of cultural exchange between Vancouver Island and Aotearoa. Working across cultures provided different models for cultural and language renewal, leadership and governance, and strategies to negotiate Indigenous-settler relationships. In Aotearoa and British Columbia, UNDRIP has been adopted into law, and is now being measured against attainment goals.
Projects strands:
The project was led by Prof Bryony Onciul and had 4 distinct strands:
The project was led by Prof Bryony Onciul and had 4 distinct strands:
- Ancestral governance and environmental stewardship, led by Chief Wedlidi Speck (2023-24).
- Language revitalisation, led by Keisha Everson.
- Cultural revitalisation, led by Chief Andy Everson.
- Cultural learning exchange with Aotearoa, led by Dr Awhina Tamarapa.
The project had 6 key objectives:
- To demonstrate ways Indigenous rights can be upheld in practice by following local priorities around cultural leadership, ancestral governance, language revival, and cultural renewal, and create culturally appropriate Indigenous-led outcome measures.
- To reconnect Indigenous families, within the collaborating communities, with their lineage of cultural practices and hereditary responsibilities connected to unceded territories and environmental and cultural stewardship on Vancouver Island.
- To support a sustainable approach to language revival, teaching, and Elder's leadership and guidance for the next generation of Kwak'wala speakers, and make an accessible resource of language materials for the wider community.
- To renew historic cultural material key to living practices of dance and oral history sharing in Potlatches, by visiting collections held in museums and commissioning new pieces by emerging Indigenous artists, strengthening their own cultural practice while supporting wider community efforts to uphold Indigenous rights and cultural pride.
- To connect the implementation of UNDRIP in BC, Canada with the work in Aotearoa New Zealand, to create networks that will support enhancing (re)conciliation, decolonisation and Indigenous rights.
- Inform academic understandings of the history of Vancouver Island, and the relationships between heritage, politics, culture, art, language, and geography that can actively support Indigenous rights in a meaningful way that reflects Indigenous priorities.