Truth and Reconciliation in the Digital Age – Denise Williams, First Nations Technology Council
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Executive Director at First Nations Technology Council LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quwutsun/ Denise is Coast Salish from Cowichan Tribes on Vancouver Island. She is an advocate for social justice and has spent her career seeking out opportunities to play a role in the advancement of Indigenous sovereignty and social change. For the past ten years Denise has worked under the mandate of First Nations communities to address specific capacity building efforts in education and technology. She has worked to gain experience at the federal, provincial and local levels and has enjoyed using a genuine approach to collaboration and partnership development to build strong networks across organizations. The role of Executive Director for the First Nations Technology Council has been incredibly inspiring and motivating. Denise has greatly appreciated the opportunity to develop and implement a social enterprise business model for the Technology Council and the opportunity to connect with First Nations communities across the province to discuss digital technologies. Denise believes strongly in the power of digital technologies designed and controlled by First Nations and believes in the transformative change it supports in building strong, healthy and thriving communities. Denise volunteers locally on the downtown eastside with the Urban Native Youth Association as a member of the Board of Directors and as the President of the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Center Society.
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Truth and Reconciliation in the Digital Age – Denise Williams, First Nations Technology Council
- 1. RECONCILIATION IN A DIGITAL AGE FIRST NATIONS TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL
- 2. Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) xʷməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam) Territorial AcknowledgementThe Technology Council is grateful to live and work on the unceded territories of the:
- 3. Grace Hopper Led the development of one of the first programming languages called COBOL. Mark Dean Named on three of the nine original patents for the foundation of the IBM PC. Innovation has always been driven by diversity. Katherine Johnson Calculated the flight trajectory for the first American into space in 1959 and Apollo 11's flight to the moon in 1969. Susan Kare A pioneer of computer icon design and creator of the original Apple icons.
- 4. For every 1% increase in diversity, there is a 2.4% increase in revenue. The Diversity Equation
- 5. A Call to All Canadians “Reconciliation is about establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in this country. For that to happen, there has to be awareness of the past, acknowledgement of the harm that has been inflicted, atonement for the causes, and action to change behaviour.” Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- 6. Our Shared History: Indigenous Resiliency and Resurgence
- 7. “Reconciliation must inspire Indigenous and non- Indigenous peoples to transform Canadian society so that our children and grandchildren can live together in dignity, peace, and prosperity on these lands we now share.” - Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report
- 9. We call upon the corporate sector in Canada to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a reconciliation framework and to apply its principles, norms, and standards to corporate policy and core operational activities involving Indigenous peoples and their lands and resources. Call to Action #92
- 10. Commit to meaningful consultation, building respectful relationships, and obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before proceeding with economic development projects. 92.1
- 11. Of the 5 major technology firms only 2 reported on Indigenous or Native American representation in their workforces in their latest diversity reports: 0.5%<1%
- 12. Ensure that Aboriginal peoples have equitable access to jobs, training, and education opportunities in the corporate sector, and that Aboriginal communities gain long-term sustainable benefits from economic development projects. 92.2
- 13. “Canada cannot afford to lose the next generation of Indigenous business talent… We face a unique opportunity to remake the once-vibrant relationship between Indigenous peoples and businesses in the rest of Canada.” - JP Gladu, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business
- 14. Foundations and Futures in Innovation and Technology
- 15. Provide education for management and staff on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. This will require skills based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism. 92.3
- 16. Deepening the Conversation Staff Dialogue on TRC “Calls to Action” Indigenous Reading List for Staff Reconciliation Workshops/Cultura l Competency Training
- 17. “Reconciliation is yours to achieve. We owe it to each other to build a Canada based on our shared future, a future of healing and trust.” - Justice Murray Sinclair
Notes de l'éditeur
- As we gather here today to explore the meaningful advancement of reconciliation in a digital age, it is important to first acknowledge that innovation has always been driven by diversity - it is in the exchange of ideas from those with differing backgrounds, cultures and lived experiences that transformative ideas emerge. As recently noted by Apple CEO Tim Cook, “the most diverse group will produce the best product.”
- There is more than just anecdotal evidence to support this claim - a recent study of more than 7,900 workplaces across 14 economic sectors conducted by the Trudeau Foundation (“The Diversity Dividend: Canada's Global Advantage”) found in almost all sectors “a significant, positive relationship between ethnocultural diversity and increased productivity and revenue.”
- We exist in an age of reconciliation, one in which an increasing number of Canadians are beginning to explore their role in meaningfully addressing historical and ongoing injustices and inequities. When we speak of reconciliation in a digital age, we speak of reconciliation not only as a process of reexamining the past, but as an ongoing collective journey that responds to our collective histories, our current realties and the opportunities that lie before us. Indigenous peoples were the original innovators upon the territories we now refer to as Canada, with resiliency and ingenuity ever-present forces that produced the thriving Nations we now see.
- In order to move forward together, we must first recognize and more deeply understand the full and complete history of this country as it relates to the experience of Indigenous peoples. As we begin to undertake this work, it is important to emphasize the themes of resiliency and resurgence that underlie this narrative - in spite of every possible extent by the colonial powers (and later, the Crown) to extinguish voices, communities and cultures, we are witnessing a resurgence in Indigenous languages, the repatriation of ceremonial objects and the rebuilding of bighouses, and the emergence of a new generation of visionary young Indigenous leaders. It is also important to acknowledge that there is no single narrative that can capture the lived experiences of diverse Indigenous Nations across Canada, as colonization impacted Indigenous peoples differently across the country. While differing in their experiences, they were unified by the intent of the federal government - in the words of Canada’s first Prime Minister, to “assimilate the Indian people in all respects … as speedily as they are fit to change.” Beginning with colonization the entire way of life of Indigenous peoples was forever altered as European settlers sought to strip them of their identities and break the bonds between them and a rich culture and history that stretched to time immemorial. Prior to European contact, Indigenous peoples had established sophisticated systems of governance, community and economy. Indian Act The Indian Act, passed in 1876, established the reserve system, prevented Indigenous peoples from forming political organizations, made illegal the speaking of native languages and the undertaking of traditional religious practices, banned potlatches and other cultural ceremonies and established the residential school system. Residential School System Over the course of their existence, 150,000 Indigenous children passed through the halls of over 130 residential schools across Canada, schools whose last doors closed only in 1996. The history and longstanding impacts of this system have been most comprehensively documented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body established in 2008 as a result of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Sixties Scoop The disruption of Indigenous families was not confined to the residential school experience. As the residential school system began to be phased out as a national policy, the Indian Act was amended to allow provincial governments to provide care to Indigenous youth who were deemed to be lacking such care within their communities. Later named the “Sixties Scoop,” the decades of the 60s, 70s and 80s would see an increasingly disproportionate number of Indigenous children taken from their families and placed in provincial care. As noted by the CBC, under this policy, “between 11,000 and 20,000 aboriginal children were removed from their homes and placed with new families in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.”
- So where does one begin? And what will a sector in meaningful pursuit of reconciliation look and feel like?
- As you begin to explore reconciliation at the organizational level, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report provides a framework with which to begin to make meaningful contributions to the reconciliation movement. Within its final report, the TRC developed 94 “Calls to Action” to “redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation.” Call to Action 92 is addressed to the Canadian business community.
- Foundations and Futures in Innovation and Technology (FiiT) was developed by the Technology Council to provide Indigenous students with the opportunity to develop and strengthen digital skills and explore careers within the province’s technology and innovation sector. Foundations in Innovation and Technology is a comprehensive introductory digital skills program series of introductory-level course that allow students to explore six in-demand fields within the technology sector: Web Development, Communications and Digital Marketing, GIS/GPS Mapping, Software Testing, Network Startup and Support, and Administrative Professional Skills. Foundations will be accredited by the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, with students who complete all six modules receiving 24 university credits. An online version of the Foundations course is currently in development with Royal Roads University. The advanced streams of the program (Futures in Innovation and Technology), will allow students to focus in on one topic and become industry-ready. This programming is being delivered in partnership with leading industry partners.
- Hosting “lunch and learn” style sessions or reconciliation workshops for staff can be a good first step in elevating your team’s awareness and understanding. This could range from a staff-led initiative (a staff dialogue on the TRC Calls to Action or a book club of Indigenous authors) to deeper discussion and learning through an Indigenous-led facilitated workshop or training. In the Lower Mainland, organizations such as the Raven Institute and Reconciliation Canada offer workshops throughout the year on our shared history and the future of the reconciliation space, while the San'yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training provides online cultural competency curriculum for organizations.