A local school union plans to support truth and reconciliation with new initiatives.
CUPE Local 439 represents School District 71 employees in the Comox Valley.
With today being National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, president Kyoshi Kosky says the organization is at an important point on the path to reconciliation.
“What we understand is that we have colonial structures that replicate today: oppression, assimilation with Indigenous people and nations in our society, community, and culture,” said Kosky. “To understand what we need to deconstruct, take apart, in order to put in a different way of being in our structures and systems, it’s important to understand how we subconsciously practice white supremacy not knowingly.”
He says they are learning from Indigenous people what it looks like to be aware of those issues, with the goal of bringing in a different structure.
To support the path to reconciliation, the union plans to bring in an Indigenous support worker steward to help deal with challenges affecting Indigenous workers in the organization.
“We could provide a higher level of cultural safety for them to have the help and assistance they need,” said Kosky. “Another piece that we are going to be doing is starting to meet and circle with our executive, we’re going to hopefully have restorative model and practices from this territory that allow us to solve conflict through Indigenous ways of knowing and living.”
Kosky adds he’s happy that people can honour Indigenous ways of knowing through Truth and Reconciliation day, with hopes the process can benefit communities long-term.
Files by Nathan Maley, Vista Radio Staff
