Sechelt (shíshálh) Nation members will be surveyed for their opinions on reconciliation and where the Nation is headed, Chief Calvin Craigan announced recently.
“This [survey] will be a first of its kind,” Craigan told Coast Reporter.
“I think former leaders always kind of worked in a vacuum and this will give them something they can review and something they can work with, but not get away from the original vision of the forefathers and the original chiefs about wanting to be independent, wanting to be self-governing – and so it’s in relation to that, how are we doing? Are we headed in the right direction?”
Craigan said the survey questions are still being finalized by “a professional company out of Vancouver” and he expects the survey to be released to the Nation’s membership in about a week.
He noted there was some backlash when he first announced the signing of a provincial reconciliation document that would give the band 288 hectares of Crown land, a share of provincial forestry revenue, some capacity funding and open the door to further negotiations with the province.
“It’s always questioned and it’s questioned by both sides. Even the Pender Harbour people, you know, [said] ‘was that the right move? How does it affect us?’ That kind of thing. So you get it from everywhere,” Craigan said.
The backlash, in part, prompted the survey that will probe shíshálh Nation members’ thoughts on reconciliation.
“Mainly it will be on reconciliation, but it could go into the depths of healing and wellness, it could go into where we’re going in the future, how it’s going to roll out, that kind of thing,” Craigan said.
He said that if the survey shows the majority of shíshálh Nation members aren’t in favour of reconciliation, “then there will have to be some kind of adjustment.”
The survey will be mailed to shíshálh Nation members once the questions are finalized and Craigan said the results will be compiled and released so that the findings can be “transparent to everyone.”
