Hupačasath Council
Elected Councillor
Beginning of Spring 2021, with the support and encouragement from my community and my ambition to serve and cultivate a brighter future, I stepped forward as an elected leader for my community, Hupačasath. I am honoured and grateful to be a representative.
Intention & New Beginnings
Walking forward with ancestral integrity and the strong intention to inspire growth, I was aware of the heavy dynamics, history, and challenges that needed to be navigated, including challenges with Council, staffing, pandemic, inequity, lateral violence, territorial dispute, and mental health and addictions. However, I believe in our collective ability to do so effectively and to acknowledge, heal, and find resolution toward a brighter future. I believe in the greater abundance of potential that already exists and has the opportunity to be realized.
I launched into this role with the motivation to bring meaningful projects, empower health and wellbeing, for our people to find belonging, remember how we’re all connected, and what it means to be Hupačasath. I’ve persistently moved forward with grace, confidence, passion, and energy to grow our community to the best of my ability. I’ve initiated new ideas and worked to bring the Council table together, whereas it can be a space of shared respect and constructive discussion that progresses our nation and community. In my drive and engagement through this role, I’m proud of the integrity I’ve upheld in maintaining leadership during a difficult time. I’ve also increasingly learned of the systems that impede vision and inhibit the community's growth.
Experience & Systems Change
Our community has been burdened by hardship over the past years. Succeeding in the current systems is incredibly challenging. Throughout my time and personal experience as an elected councillor, I’m aware of colonial influences and specific internal events that have consequently impacted our nation over the past several years, including colonial violence, treaty, and CEO & Council gaps. Collectively we move through this, and it is not easy to overcome. Still, more work can and needs to be done to remedy this. Systems change can be accomplished through multiple means, whether top-down or bottom-up.
While there have been some wins, I have been frustrated by the lack of communication, respect, teamwork, vision, effort, and constructive discussions that enable the ability to progress our nation and community. I’ve worked to remedy existing issues, with some progress. Still, it has been exhausting; I feel limited in my ability to drive impact, grow, and realize the change I’d like to see for our community. It’s not individuals at fault, but a dysfunctional system, dramatically exacerbating current issues.
Additionally, some perspectives create us vs them narratives that are destructive and divisive in nature. Without remembering iisaak and instilling a safe space of connection and collaboration, this dismisses any belief system different than one's own and is ignorant of any notion of interconnectedness we all share. Instead, this perspective is harmful in perpetuating colonial violence, a greedy, individualistic worldview that has caused mass harm to many populations and ecosystems.
Leading this change can be frustrating and lonely at times, and a perspective of the bigger picture and a vision of active hope is needed to maintain that persistence. For some, maintaining the status quo in a dysfunctional system may be comfortable as it feels normalized, and it isn't easy to look beyond. However, I implore anyone to expand perspective, work together as a collective with diversified strengths, create a dream of what is possible, and put this into action.
Vision
I intend to offer illumination and inspire hope. Beauty and potential are abundant for our people; I believe in a future of empowerment, possibility, and prosperity of wellbeing. A vision we can realize in which people feel a sense of belonging and there is a deepened connection to culture, unity, land, place, and what it means to be Hupačasath. A vision guided by Nuučaan̓uł principles of ʔiisaak and hišukʔiš c̓awaak — respect for all creation having a common origin and that everything is one. Our community is capable of incredible things, and with progressive collaboration, I believe in this more significant potential.
Recommendations
During this time, I’ve learned a lot. To take these next steps and walk together toward a brighter vision, I have several recommendations I’ll be sharing with our community this week. In this article, I will only mention five:
CEO refresh.
Custom election code, Council members can’t also hold an admin/staff position (conflict of interest).
Community-led feast to spark healing, unity, culture, and connection, signifying a new chapter post-pandemic.
Protocol Agreement for territories, collaborating from a cultural perspective.
Expanding health & career supports (Education & Career Coordinator as one example).
Reflections & Upcoming Announcement
I hope my words and actions inspire the systems change that will occur to better our people's joint health and well-being. I’ve written this piece to offer insight into some of the things I’ve been carrying and inspire empowerment in others. I’ve learned patience, and for this growth to occur, it is the collective that inspires systems to change for the betterment of the community. It is a marathon, a journey, that we share. The existing issues have been demoralizing to a decisive degree; we need change.
This past year's work has been heavy on my heart and soul. I often travel for inspiration and energy. Otherwise, I can feel stagnant in creativity and inspiration and emotionally drained. Nonetheless, I am very grateful for many things in my life, including my support and the beautiful moments of inspiration that flow in other ways. Despite these challenges, I have ideas and a vision for what our nation and the Alberni Valley can be. Thank you for reading this far; I will be sharing more in a post later this week, including an announcement for the next steps in my journey. ƛ̓eekoo ƛ̓eekoo, čuu.