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Richmond Plans to Hire Truth and Reconciliation Manager
This position, which will cost the city about $150,000 per year, is just one step planned by the city to work toward reconciliation with Indigenous people.
The focus of the Indigenous relations manager will be to build relationships with local First Nations and create a city-wide approach to reconciliation.
Two Richmond teachers created a petition and then approached city council in December asking the city to do more work towards reconciliation with First Nations.
This followed a request in 2021 from Musqueam Coun. Howard Grant to meet regularly with city council – the first meeting took place in January and the plan is to meeting twice a year.
Other steps include meeting regularly with the Musqueam council, mandatory training on Indigenous-specific racism and decolonization for city staff and councillors, implementation of truth and reconciliation calls to action for municipalities as well as those municipally relevant actions from the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
The city also plans to include Indigenous history on its website.
There are eight municipality-specific calls to action that the City of Richmond plans to implement, including education of public servants, tell the stories of Indigenous athletes, and to “repudiate concepts used to justify European sovereignty.”
City council voted unanimously last week to hire the manager and move forward with the recommendations from city staff on truth and reconciliation initiatives.