Dear Editor,

Re: [Symbolic new plaza being erected at LEC, 91原创 Advance Times, Nov. 17]

The upcoming 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the Township of 91原创 (TOL) made the news this month with a federal funding $500,000 grant announcement 鈥減romoting citizen engagement, culture and heritage鈥� on an 鈥渋mmersive artistic plaza showcasing works of local First Nation artists.鈥�

New TOL Mayor Eric Woodward declared for the announcement: 鈥淥ver the past 150 years, our community has done a lot to celebrate our pioneers and early settlers. We have done relatively less over that time to recognize our Indigenous partners. This 150th anniversary is an opportunity to highlight our shared history, and especially, how the Kwantlen First Nation has been and will continue to be integral to the future growth and identity of the Township of 91原创.鈥�

Is it possible that TOL has also done relatively less over these 150 years to recognize mixed ancestry people resulting from the union of their Kwantlen Indigenous partner with white settlers as well as with other Indigenous people such as Semiahmoo, Katsie, Matsqui, Coquitlam, Musqueam, Tsawwassen, Kanaka (native Hawaiian), Iroquois and Abenaki prior to these 150 years?

Children of these unions were often discriminated by both white and Indigenous people for having the inappropriate skin colour tone expected by the group. Mixed ancestry people are after all also part of the 鈥渟hared history鈥� and continue to be 鈥渋ntegral to the future growth and identity of the Township of 91原创鈥� in its celebration of 鈥渃itizen engagement, culture and heritage.鈥�

Only two years away from the bicentennial of an exploration once carried out by a similarly broadly diverse crew originating from the Columbia Valley (1824), TOL still does not recognize the undertaking that led to the establishment of the first ever trading post and agricultural mixed ancestry settlement in Southern British Columbia (1827), nearly a half century before its incorporation (1873) under a new colonial government.

Are political reasons and flavours of the day thinking still prevailing nowadays?

In ending, note that the City of 91原创 split away (1955) from TOL without consulting its local Indigenous Kwantlen partner people. Needless to say, mixed ancestry people had little say then, too.

Same old?

R茅jean Beaulieu, Vancouver

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鈥� READ MORE: Celebration of Indigenous culture draws hundreds to 91原创 powwow

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