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When “British Columbia” joined Canada in 1871, Indigenous peoples were not invited to negotiate the terms of acceptance, which ignored Indigenous land claims and the treaty-making process. Most of BC is not currently under a treaty. The area now known as “Vancouver” remains the ancestral homelands of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
Welcome to Ancestral Voice!
If you are here because you ...
✔Are interested in learning a general history of Indigenous peoples but don't know where to start.
✔ Have a general understanding of some relevant Indigenous- related issues but would like to learn more.
✔ Work at a company/institution that interacts with Indigenous peoples.
✔ Live in British Columbia, or are new to BC, but have no idea about the region's unique history.
✔ Want to learn Canadian history from an Indigenous perspective.
✔ Want to better understand "Land Acknowledgements" and the meaning of "Reconciliation".
Then we are here for you.
Click below for a fact sheet on these topics.
- Operated in Canada from the 1830s and continued until 1996.
- In 1920, attendance was mandatory. Parents were jailed if their children did not go.
- “I want to get rid of the ‘Indian problem’ … our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic.” This is an actual quote from Duncan Campbell Scott, the highest-ranking official concerning Indigenous affairs. Also 1920.
- The “vanishing Indian” myth assumed Indigenous peoples were destined for extinction. A “Western” education could save the children.
- Estimated 150,000 children attended residential schools. Children as young as 3 to 4 years old would attend the school until aged 15 to 17, usually with only a Grade 8 level of education.
- “Orange Shirt Day”; celebrated September 30th annually to commemorate residential school survivor Phyllis Webstadt, who had her new orange shirt taken away on her first day of school.
- “a sad chapter in our history”; former Prime Minister Stephen Harper offers a public apology in 2008 for Canada’s role in residential schools. In 2023, Pope Francis rescinds the “Doctrine of Discovery”.
- Are the group of Indigenous peoples who inhabit the southwest coast of BC and Northwest Washington State. Particularly the Puget Sound, Juan de Fuca Strait, and the “Salish Sea” (Georgia Strait). This includes the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tleil-watuuth Nations.
- The Coast Salish were among the last Indigenous peoples to be “contacted” by European/American empires, beginning around the 1790s.
- The Coast Salish “culture area” was the most densely populated region in all of “Turtle Island” and were governed by a strict spiritual protocol known as the “potlatch”.
- “Beringia Theory”; the first peoples in “North America” crossed the Bering Land Bridge which connected Siberia to Alaska during last Ice Age, over ten thousand years ago.
- Oral traditions say Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Northwest Coast since “time immemorial”. Archaeological evidence confirms a human presence as far as 14,000 years ago.
- Totem poles were not originally significant to the area.
- There is no consensus definition for “Indigenous”. In Canada, it is referred to people with ancestry before Europeans arrived.
- “Aboriginal” is used in Canada to refer to three distinct groups of Indigenous peoples: First Nations, Métis, Inuit.
- “Indian” has two meanings in Canada: term is rooted in Columbus’ erroneous belief he landed in the Indies. Also used in legal contexts when defining Status and non-Status Indians as defined under the Indian Act.
- Many famous people have made successful careers portraying themselves as Indigenous. People continue to claim Indigenous identity because of its perceived benefits.
- There are approximately 60 different Indigenous languages spoken across Canada, 34 of which are spoken in British Columbia.
- Indigenous peoples make up about 5% of the population of Canada.
- Manitoba elected the country’s first Premier of First Nations descent. No Indigenous person has ever been elected Prime Minister.
- Indigenous nations of Canada control 0.36% of all land in the country, known as “reserves”.
- Chief Joe Capilano of the Squamish Nation travelled to England and met King Edward VII to discuss the infringement of Indigenous rights.
- The national sport of Canada is lacrosse, a spiritual pastime played by the Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes region.
- The national symbol of Canada is the beaver for its role in the historic fur trade that brought settlers to “New France”.
- The first Europeans to North America were Vikings, who arrived almost 500 years before Columbus, on the northern tip of present-day Newfoundland.
- Is the only country in the world with three ocean coastlines: Pacific, Atlantic, and the Arctic.
- Canada is believed to have originated from the Iroquoian word “Kanata” meaning “village”.
- The Beothuk were an Indigenous group inhabiting present-day Newfoundland. They are now known to be extinct as result of early European occupation in the 15th century.
- British Columbia is the only provincial government to date to have agreed to fully implement the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
- Canada Day is celebrated on July 1st. In recent years, the holiday has been used to reflect on Canada’s historic injustices and to advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.