Board of trade calls on Surrey to consider acknowledgment
Respectfully acknowledge the Indigenous lands on which you gather. That is the message from the head of the Surrey Board of Trade to the city's mayor and council after they voted down a motion that called on council to perform a “territorial acknowledgment” before each meeting.
Board of Trade CEO Anita Huberman called for action and leadership from the city on the matter because “it is the right thing to do.”
“The significance of acknowledging the Indigenous land we stand on marks a small but essential step toward reconciliation,” Huberman told the mayor in an open letter Friday.
The city has the largest urban Indigenous population in the province and it must create inclusive communities, she said.
On Jan. 11, Mayor Doug McCallum and four councillors voted against a motion by Coun. Jack Hundial that the city “develop a meaningful, respectful acknowledgment before every council and committee meeting of our commitment as a city to reconciliation and recognition that the land we are on is the traditional territory of the Coast Salish people.”
McCallum did not respond to a request for comment.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said he found it unfortunate that municipal leaders would take issue with something that has become status quo at the highest levels of government and is made in a spirit of recognition between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.
“I think it just reveals an inherent racist attitude in regard to, I would suggest, people of colour,” Phillip said.
Hundial's motion is similar in spirit to one slated to go to council at the Township of Langley.
Despite council's refusal to state a land acknowledgment before meetings, the city does have a version of one on its website.
Hundial said he has yet to hear a rationale why those who opposed his motion did not support it.
“The pain inflicted on Indigenous communities in Canada is still very fresh. Very, very fresh,” he said.
Hundial said he hoped to see one of the councillors who voted down his motion rethink their decision and introduce their own in support of an acknowledgment.