When I read the survey responses, I expected, honestly, to hear more people say “it’s a waste of time”, or “virtue-signalling/tokenism”, because that’s what my reading of the mainstream media, the toxic comments section of bullshit publications like the Vancouver Sun, or the Pemberton Community Forum page, sometimes makes me think everyone thinks. But actually, for the most part, people were very hopeful, and receptive, to initiatives that help us learn, unlearn and engage more deeply with each other, with Canadian history, and with how we might need to shift things for the future… Even things that haven’t personally affected people, have their support.

Here’s how these kinds of initiatives and experiments and offerings are landing:

“Hope to see more.”

“Helped me to start to see things differently.”

“I learned something.”

“Not sure they changed me personally, but I appreciate the effort.”

“Excited to see them making change.”

“They’re providing space for us to explore, learn, be uncomfortable, but in community.”

“Excited to be part of meaningful change.”

“Nothing has personally affected me more than working with Lil’wat young people over the summers. It has been very transformative and deepend my compassion for Lil’wat people. It has cemented my knowledge of my own privilege and the privilege of my children.”

“They have impacted me in the way that finally there is something being done to unite our communities in a healthy way. Sometimes it feels like lip service, but then I see people getting together to build the Arbour (Mark Mendonca, Brian Lester, Timber Framers Guild) that will host Pow Wows and events that all of our local and non-local communities and come together and celebrate in! I am part of both worlds – I am related to half of Mt. Currie but have never lived there – so I often feel disconnected from all communites. It’s a dance to belong in a community, a beautiful, frustrating one but so worth it when you are accepted! I feel that our communites are definitely more connected that in the past.”

“I am starting to see how libraries are actually radical places of change. I want to see more from them, and it would be need to reframe libraries this way.”

“Both communities need help, and they need someone to have relations other than in government. We need more working relations and educational impacts for people to stay interested and take on the pride of what it means to live on the Lil’wat Nation.”

“Learning how bad it is, colonialism today”

“I have hope.”