W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council’s OȽET TŦE MEQ ŚW̱ELO₭E (Respect for All Relations) has officially launched its four-year research project. The kickoff event was aimed at raising awareness about the R4AR project within the community and to open the door for community members to sign up and get involved.
The event had a great turnout, with more than 50 people in attendance despite the bad weather, and really positive feedback on the event from attendees. Door prizes were also given away to lucky winners, and high-quality raincoats and weather jackets were available for attendees to try on and take home. The coats were kindly provided by Power To Be, an organization based within W̱SÁNEĆ territory that works to remove and reduce the barriers for youth, adults, and families to access nature.
Aside from raising awareness regarding the R4AR project, the event provided an avenue for meaningful conversations among elders and participants on key W̱SÁNEĆ relationships with the natural world. Thank you to everyone who attended and helped organize this event!
What You Need to Know About the R4AR Project
The R4AR project is a four-year, community-driven research partnership among First Nation organizations, university researchers, and environmental groups. These groups work together to revitalize and advance Indigenous laws and change settler-colonial laws in BC to promote a healthier relationship between humans and nature.
The Driving Force Behind the Project
Currently, Western laws treat animals, plants, land, water, and other parts of nature largely as non-spiritual commodities to be used, owned, and traded by people. This, however, has never been the way Indigenous peoples have related to their homelands, animals and other non-human relatives. As such, 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 W̱SÁNEĆ 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. Indigenous communities want to once again create a space for more inclusive worldviews.
What the R4AR Project Timeline Looks Like
The first year of the project will be dedicated to exploring traditional relationships. This will involve community members and elders, holding discussions and sharing their knowledge about W̱SÁNEĆ’s ancestral relationships with the natural world — including lands, waters, animals, plants, celestial bodies, and other non-human relatives.
The second year of the Project will be dedicated to assessing Western law interactions. The research will assess how modern Western laws interact with W̱SÁNEĆ relationships and look into how other indigenous groups have changed Western law to better reflect and respect their relationships with nature. The risks and benefits of effecting changes to these Western laws will also be reviewed.
The third year will be about working with the community to attempt to design a legal tool and/or framework that W̱SÁNEĆ could use to change the application of Western law within the W̱SÁNEĆ territory to better reflect and respect traditional relationships.
Year 4 of the project will be for implementation advocacy. During this phase, the team will agree on and implement an advocacy plan that centres on proposed actions. The plan could include asserting political pressure and doing public advocacy work through the media.
Community Involvement
The timeline for this project is still subject to change and open to input from community members. The plan will adapt and take shape over time, depending on your feedback.
If you’re interested in getting involved with the R4AR project, we’d love to have you join in. Keep an eye out for our Annual Community Events and Place-Based Learning Sessions. They are an excellent opportunity to connect, learn, and share.
You can also sign up for focus groups and interviews, where your knowledge about W̱SÁNEĆ laws, relationships with the lands and waters, ancestral relatives, and the impacts of colonial laws can help guide this important work. Everything we gather from these sessions will be shared back with the community, and honoraria will be available for participants in recognition of their knowledge and time.
We also encourage you to nominate community members who carry deep knowledge of the natural world, western legal systems, SENĆOŦEN or W̱SÁNEĆ ways of knowing and being. Their voices matter, and your nomination can help strengthen the work ahead.
And to all the youth: Your perspectives are incredibly valuable! We encourage you to step forward, learn more about the R4AR project, and help shape its future. Your fresh ideas can make a real difference.
Sign up for a focus group, nominate a community member or let us know you’re interested in getting involved by emailing us at info@wsanec.com. Please include “R4AR” in the subject line, and we will get in touch with you.
If you need more information about the project, give us a call at (778) 351-4969.
To stay up to date on the OȽET TŦE MEQ ŚW̱ELO₭E Research Project, and other W̱LC happenings, be sure to sign up for W̱LC’s newsletter.
