I bring greetings on behalf of Tsawwassen First Nation.
As we approach National Indigenous Peoples Day, I would like to take the opportunity to share a little about Tsawwassen Language and culture that we proudly celebrate.
We are a proud Hun’qum’i’num-speaking Coast Salish community. We proudly continue the practices and teachings of our Ancestors who exercised sovereign authority over our Tsawwassen Territory since time immemorial.
In Hun’qum’i’num, Tsawwassen means ‘land facing the sea.’ The deep inter-relationships and connections of the land to our Nation and people is reflected in our traditional place names. The lands, the waters, the other-than-human relations in and of TFN’s territory, and TFN’s relationships to them, are a sacred teaching known as nautsa’ mawt (‘work together as one’).
Traditionally, TFN’s lands were central to other Coast Salish communities, and we have had a long tradition of hosting others in our territory. Having strong relationships with others is also a core value for our community and my focus as Chief is to try to ensure we have good relations with our closest neighbours in Delta.
To overcome our colonial past, we reset our relationship with other governments when TFN entered into a treaty relationship with Canada and British Columbia in 2009.
This treaty has been our toolbox to rebuild our community and the economic development happening is a means to an end to invest in infrastructure and programs, but also to revive our language and culture. We see successes in this regard happening every day in Tsawwassen. This is truly something I celebrate.
June is National Indigenous History month in Canada, which includes National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21. For TFN, this month and this day celebrating First Nation, Inuit, and Metis Peoples embodies the spirit and intent of nautsa’ mawt – a time for Indigenous Peoples and Canadians to come together and to build on our work together as one, for our past, present, and future generations.
Happy 2023 National Indigenous Peoples Day from TFN to All of Our Relations!
