All W̱SÁNEĆ are invited and encouraged to attend the launch event for W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council’s (W̱LC’s) OȽET TŦE MEQ ŚW̱ELO₭E (Respect for All Relations) Research Project. The event will take place on Thursday November 13th, 2025 from 5:30-8PM at W̱SÁNEĆ School Board Cultural Building (7449 West Saanich Rd.) The event will provide information on W̱LC’s OȽET TŦE MEQ ŚW̱ELO₭E Project and encourage community members to get involved.
ĆTESEU (D’Arcy Island) from PKOLS
The OȽET TŦE MEQ ŚW̱ELO₭E Project is part of a broader 4-year, Indigenous-led research project between W̱LC, Haida, Tsilhqot’in, Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance, and the University of British Columbia. The project will consider whether western law can be made to better respect and reflect local Indigenous laws and relationships of care with the natural world.
Currently, western laws treat animals, plants, land, and water largely as nonspiritual commodities to be used, owned, and traded by people, this has never been the way Indigenous peoples have related to their homelands or animal relatives. This project will explore whether it is possible to use western legal mechanisms to change the way settlers and western governments understand the natural world to be something less akin to commodities and more akin to relatives.
All around the world, Indigenous communities are leveraging tools like “rights of nature” treaties, constitutional covenants and “legal personality” to push back against limiting western legal structures and once again create a space for Indigenous worldviews. For example, in Aotearoa several Māori groups have negotiated the establishment of legal personalities to provide legal rights to their more-than-human ancestors – including rivers, mountains and ancestral places. With legal personality in place, the Crown and industry are forced to interact with the representatives of these natural ancestors, and recognize them as something other than resources for the first time.
In undertaking this project, W̱SÁNEĆ are adding their voices to the Global discussion and determining their own path for how to assert their own traditional relationships with their territory and more-than-human relatives at western law. W̱SÁNEĆ community will determine the focus for the WLCs research and will consider examples from the growing Global Indigenous movement to see whether they may have some application at home.
Examples of ancestral relationships that community may want to explore through this research could include their relationship with ṮELEṮÁĆES (“Relatives of the Deep”/Islands) which have been disrupted as a result of W̱SÁNEĆ being excluded from decision-making over the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve and other zoning mechanisms. Similarly, western laws are risking relationships between W̱SÁNEĆ and the now endangered KELȽOLEMEĆEN (Southern Resident Killer Whales) by allowing and incentivizing high levels of shipping, transport, and industry in their home.
The WLC also intends to ensure that this work will have immediate benefit for W̱SÁNEĆ by using the research funding to ensure the knowledge being shared during the research is available to the whole community and is also being passed down to the next generation. W̱LC is therefore providing for different levels of community involvement, including whole community events, land-based learning sessions, smaller focus groups, and interviews across the span of the 4 year project. W̱LC hopes to identify a diverse group of participants, including participants from each band of W̱SÁNEĆ, participants of all ages, and participants with various types of expertise, knowledge and learning capacity. Community and land based learning events will include food and will be accessible to everyone, and honoraria will be provided to those participating in focus groups and interviews.
Participation in this project (at any level) is an opportunity to both learn from others – including Elders – and to pass knowledge down for future generations. Nominations – including both self-nominations and nominations of other community members – will be accepted during the event on November 13th and can be submitted to info@wsanec.com
The OȽET TŦE MEQ ŚW̱ELO₭E Project includes four phases, each taking place over one year.
During the first phase, which will begin in 2026, W̱LC will work with community members to explore traditional W̱SÁNEĆ’s relationships with the natural and spiritual world. This could include relationships with lands, islands, waters, salmon, deer, plants, trees, celestial elements such as the 13 moons, and/or anything else participants are interested in.
During year two, the research team will work with participants to review modern western legal “tools” are being used to recognize Indigenous with the natural and spiritual world and identify any risks or benefits of these tools.
During year three, the research team will work with participants to develop proposals for changing the application of western law within W̱SÁNEĆ territory to better reflect and respect their own relationship with the natural world.
Finally, during year four, the research team will work together with community to chart a path forward, whether that be by utilizing a western legal mechanism to provide better outcomes for W̱SÁNEĆ relationships with the natural environment or otherwise.
At the end of each year, W̱LC will provide a report with findings to the community and will seek guidance on how to adapt the research to meet community needs..
Ultimately, the research team hopes this project will contribute to the broader Indigenous rights movement and support the flourishing of W̱SÁNEĆ relationships with the natural environment, creating a detailed roadmap of the ways western legal mechanisms could be used to honor W̱SÁNEĆ worldviews, identifying clear recommendations for creating a new system that is more relevant to W̱SÁNEĆ, and pursuing those recommendations in the real world.
W̱LC encourages all community members to get involved in this exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of the global movement to create space for Indigenous worldviews by altering western law.
The best way to get involved is to attend the launch event on Thursday November 13th, 2025 from 5:30-8PM at W̱SÁNEĆ School Board Cultural Building (7449 West Saanich Rd.). In addition to providing information about the research project, the event will include a delicious dinner and door prizes.
To ensure childcare is not a barrier to attendance and to support the intergenerational transfer of knowledge, W̱LC encourages attendees to bring children and grandchildren to the event. W̱LC will provide children’s activities to ensure the event is fun and engaging for attendees of all ages.
Further, to ensure transportation is not a barrier, rides to and from the event are available. To request a ride, contact Nicole at Nicole.joe@wsanec.com.
W̱LC looks forward to working with the community to bring this impactful research project to life and is hopeful that it will not only generate important research outcomes, but will create an important opportunity for W̱SÁNEĆ to come together and share knowledge with one another.
To stay up to date on this event, the OȽET TŦE MEQ ŚW̱ELO₭E Research Project, and other W̱LC happenings, be sure to sign up for W̱LC’s newsletter.
