(CS4.4) Relationship Building and Reconciliation through Living Heritage

In this presentation staff from Heritage Saskatchewan and the City of Humboldt will discuss our recent year-long pilot project, with a focus on what we learned, with the intention of sharing our experiences and processes to assist other communities in considering their next steps forward. The intention is not just to report on our work, but to communicate what we learned in a practical way.
We feel that by providing information about the project, we can support other communities to build relationships and talk about reconciliation. Heritage Saskatchewan, in discussions with the Office of the Treaty Commissioner and the Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan developed a theoretical framework, and then partnered with the Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery, who had already engaged in public reconciliation focused events in the community. A critical aspect of the project was to invite Indigenous people living in and near Humboldt to be part of the Advisors for the project.
Racism and a lack of supportive relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities is a pressing issue in Saskatchewan. Living heritage, which encompasses our identity, history and informs our decisions in the present, is often not included in reconciliation efforts. Working with partners at the Office of the Treaty Commissioner we developed a cyclical, four-part process that would be used to inform the sessions in the pilot:
- Where Are We Now & How Did We Get Here?
- What is our Common Ground?
- Who & What is Missing Here?
- Completing the Circle
This pilot project, called “Relationship Building and Reconciliation through Living Heritage” set out to address the gap between living heritage and reconciliation. The approach was community based and grew from our recognition that we have a responsibility to address UNDRIP and the Calls to Action. We do not think it is solely on governments to address and forward reconciliation, but also community members and their organizations.
This presentation will discuss our methodology in community work, including “action heritage” as defined by Robert Johnston and Kimberley Marwood: “action heritage privileges process (action) over outcomes and addresses social inequalities through a dispersed and redistributive model of research practice.” In addition, it will discuss why we made the decisions we made and how other communities might model this work.