INSIGHTS ON CULTURAL SAFETY IN PRACTICE

Happy Teaching Tuesday, everyone. This past week has been a hard one for survivors and their families. Every time I turn around, I'm confronted with denialist rhetoric — and this past weekend, the display put forward by the Second Sons was so bold, so uncaring, it was hard to believe. Orange Shirt Day is tomorrow. Today, our dear friend Wholwolet'za reminds us of the importance of small symbols of solidarity — a message that feels even more necessary in light of the ignorance

Content note: This post includes references to the physical, mental, and sexual abuse Indigenous people experienced for speaking their languages. Last week I saw posts about the new stop sign in Tsawwassen, written in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓. Some people were celebrating it. Others had a lot to say about why it shouldn't be there. George was watching the same conversation, and he had something to say too. Uy skweyul siiye'yu (Good day friends), I hope this finds you and your loved one

Content Warning: Residential School Denialism A few weeks ago a post came across my social media feed that caused me to gasp. A popular right-wing media site was promoting their own line of orange shirts, available in kids' and adult sizes, printed with statements like: "Dig Deeper" "Buried Truth" "Respect My Property Rights" I sat with that for a while. I thought about my dear friends in community who lived through residential schools, who have shared their truths and their

Uy skweyul siiye'yu (Good day friends), Over the next few months I am going to be weaving through Teachings Tuesday's that feature one of our incredible Mentors: who they are, how they came to share in this work, and a few of the reasons we love them so much. This week I'd like to introduce you to my dear friend, Daniel Elliott of Stz'uminus First Nation. And to do that, I have to go back quite a few years. In 2017 I had the amazing good fortune to meet an incredible man who

I remember back in 2014 when I started working in Coast Salish communities. Distinctly I remember being told the language of the people here: Hulquiminum. It was so foreign to my brain and my tongue, I wondered how I would ever remember it. The same thing happened when I met my friend Qwustenuxun. And then Wholwolet'za. At first it seemed so complicated, but now I don't think twice about any of it. It can be intimidating at first. And then one day, it's second nature. When Ge

Two weeks ago, George and I spent an afternoon in the Feast House on Grouse Mountain, presenting to a group of health regulators. We talked about cultural safety, complaints pathways, board recruitment, licensing, all the quiet machinery that decides whether Indigenous Peoples trust a system or not—aspects of healthcare often ignored in abstract policy talk. We discussed the granular questions of who gets to define safety, and who has been carrying generations of justified he

LISTEN TO THIS TEACHING HERE: Uy skweyul, everyone🧡 I'm Rebecca Harris and I am stepping in again for Kim today. A while back, George wrote about the microaggressions he carries and what it's like to move through the world as himself, every day. I remember what it took for him share that. It's one thing to carry something quietly. Its another thing entirely to put it into words and hand it to hundreds of people you may never meet. That's not a small thing to do, and I don't

Uy skweyul, friends 🧡 A few weeks ago, George was sitting in a meeting about a land acknowledgement when a staff member asked him a simple question: did he prefer to be called by his Traditional name, or his English one? He told us how much that question meant to him. Not because it was polite, but because of what it showed: someone paying attention, someone willing to ask instead of assume. That question opens up into something bigger for this week's Teachings Tuesday. Geor

A guest in one of our recent community calls said something that's been sitting with me for the past couple weeks. They'd just come through their first circle with Culturally Committed, and the experience had been impactful. They were considering how their team might benefit from participating in the work, but were concerned that some might not be quite ready yet. I want to sit with that for a moment, because it's not a small thing to say, and it's not always wrong. Some peop

Happy Teachings Tuesday, everyone. Today's message is shared with us by our dear friend and Mentor, Wholwholet'za, and is centered around time. In the context of modern agenda's, and contrasted against how cultural time unfolds. We hope you find it helpful. Since the early years of Culturally Committed, we have been asked the same question time and time again: How do you work with Indigenous People in a good way? And every single time I hear it, I feel the weight and the beau

Hello everyone. This week Kim is away, celebrating her parents' 50th wedding anniversary out in Manitoba. I'm stepping in for her today, and thankfully for me, our Teachings Tuesday comes from Wholwolet'za, George Harris Jr, my husband. By now he is a well-known Mentors in this circle, and being married to him means I get an inside line on these teachings long before they ever reach the page. Once again, George has taken something many of us probably scrolled right past, a vi

Summer has a way of pulling us outward. Road trips. Beach days. That itch to find somewhere new, somewhere quiet, somewhere that feels far from everything. George has been watching this play out on his Nation's lands — bikes rolling past homes, cameras out on the beach, people calling it a hidden gem. It's a familiar season. And it's exactly why this teaching matters right now. Because the places we're drawn to this summer aren't empty, and they were never really hidden. They

Last month I did something that made me deeply uncomfortable. I saw a post on social media from someone I've known my whole life. A person woven into the fabric of my family's story. She shared a video she recorded while driving past a First Nations community I grew up close to, showing clutter in the yards, and captioning it with something about Elders being ashamed. The comments that followed were quick and unkind. I sat with it for a bit. I am really not someone who embrac

Senator Murray Sinclair said it on the final day of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: "Education got us into this mess and education will get us out of it." He passed away last November. His words are still moving forward without him. This year's graduating class in BC is the first in provincial history required to complete Indigenous-focused coursework as a condition of earning their diploma. Not optional. Required. Every student walking across that stage this June ha

George has told me this more than once: culturally, the most important thing you can do for someone navigating a hard time is to show up. Stand there. Be seen. You don't have to do anything more than that. I think about that teaching constantly, especially when people ask me how to get more involved in this work. We tend to make it complicated in our heads, worrying about saying the wrong thing, not knowing enough, doing it right. George's answer cuts straight through all of

There are people in this community who show up so fully, so consistently, that you stop noticing how much they're carrying — until they write something like this and you realize how much they've been quietly holding. Katy Carson is Métis, and she is one of the people I trust most in this work. She's been part of this community long enough that I sometimes forget not everyone knows her story the way I do. And this week, she reminded me that that forgetting — however well-meani

This past winter, I had the chance to connect with Deana Gill in the days leading up to Indigenous Fashion Week. She was candid with me about the challenges they were navigating in real time — the barriers, the scramble, the sheer will it was taking to get the collection across the finish line. And then the night arrived, and the Supernaturals Models stepped onto the runway, and you would never have known. What I witnessed was art moving into the world with grace and power an

Many of you met Daniel Elliott at our longhouse event on April 25th. He was there as our Elder and cultural worker, offering cedar brushing to those who needed care. Daniel is a quiet constant in this community, and we are so glad for his enduring partnership in our circle. This week, he shares what that day stirred in him, and what he sees when he squints his eyes and grounds his feet. I see a system still — one where fiscal restraints require careful planning around budgeti

Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of visiting Pipi7íyekw, Joffre Lakes, twice: once in December and again in April. It is truly magical, and at these times of year, a winter wonderland. It sits on the unceded territory of the Lil'wat Nation and N'Quatqua, land that has been in relationship with those peoples since time immemorial. If you have been in the summer, you know what I mean when I say it is a Grouse Grind level of busy. Lineups in the early morning dar

After our longhouse event, someone asked me a question I've been sitting with ever since. They had heard Len compliment me on "not being stingy with your teachings." And they wanted to know: how did I feel confident the blanketing would be received well? Was I nervous that people outside the bighouse might have thoughts that could knock me off centre? It's a beautiful question. And to answer it, I have to start at the beginning. In the weeks leading up to the event, I k