First Nations flags raised in Stanley Park

Stanley Park and the Vancouver skyline are seen from above in spring 2019. (Pete Cline / CTV News Vancouver)

In what the Vancouver Park Board describes as a "small but meaningful gesture" toward reconciliation, the flags of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations have been raised in Stanley Park.

Leaders from all three nations were present at a ceremony on traditional, unceded Coast Salish Territory Tuesday.

Musqueam Chief Wayne Sparrow took the opportunity to outline the violent, colonial history of the site.

"I am a direct descendant of the last Indigenous residents of Stanley Park. The violent and destructive removal of my family from their home at spapəy̓əqm is part of our history. The city’s park board was instrumental in deeming us ‘squatters’ and burning our ancestral villages to the ground," he said in a statement.

The park board's website notes that villages on the land were occupied for "thousands of years" until the residents were evicted in the 20th century.

Until 2017, the Canadian flag, the B.C. flag and the Union Jack flew at Brockton Point. The flagpoles were removed due to safety concerns, and new ones were installed in 2019. They remained empty while consultations were undertaken on replacing the flags.

In 2020, it was recommended that the flags be replaced with those of the First Nations, and the flags were gifted to the park board.

Plans to raise the flags in a ceremony were put on hold due to the pandemic and officially greenlit by the park board last year.

"Raising these flags encourages the broader community to learn more about our history, culture and traditions. We have always been here, and we will always be here," Wilson Williams (Sxwíxwtn), a councillor of the Squamish Nation. said in a statement.

Tuesday's statement notes that the Stanley Park Intergovernmental Committee and Working Group – which includes the three First Nations' elected and traditional leaders and representatives from the park board – is developing a 100-year "vision" for the space.

"This is a step towards balancing the cultures and histories of Stanley Park, a place of great significance to the three Nations and a site of colonial harms, and a signal to residents and visitors that this land is on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories,” said Rena Soutar, the park board's manager of decolonization, arts and culture.