Kyle Clark

PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱ 2025 Update

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What’s up at PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱

Finished the school year with a celebration!

            Our summer kicked off with a celebration of all the students’ hard work at the PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱ garden over the school year. Students from ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ Tribal School, W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Secondary School, and W̱SÁNEĆ College were invited to our ĆENQALES:  W̱ILṈEW̱ SȻÁĆEL SḴÁPEȽ (Indigenous Peoples Day Gathering) to enjoy all of the fruits, flowers, and friends the garden has to offer. Michells Farm donated 5 flats of strawberries for this event; it was great seeing the fruit stained faces of the students as they have been eagerly anticipating strawberry season all year. We are very thankful for all of effort and care the students have shown over the school year to help support PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱, their community, and the environment!

Off to Girona

Kyle Clark

Kyle Clark

            During the summer, members of the PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱ team (Judith Lyn Arney, Sarah Jim, and Kyle Clarke) were invited to attend and speak at the 2024 Living Knowledge Conference in Girona, Spain! Our team learned about various restoration efforts and social wellbeing initiatives from around the world. The PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱ team shared about Relational Restoration and the work we do throughout the W̱SÁNEĆ Homelands. Kyle also presented with the Living Lab team about the development and implementation of year-round Ecostewardship Camps for lək̓ʷəŋən Youth. While in Girona we also took in the sights, met up with close friends and family, and ate good food. Thank you to the community in Girona for being great hosts, we look forward to strengthening the relationships we have built during our time there.

Restoring SṈIDȻEȽ

            Throughout the summer our team was diligently working to maintain and steward SṈIDȻEȽ. Summer is the busiest time for our restoration team due to the vigorous growth that comes with the added sunlight! Our efforts were supported by volunteer days and Learning on the Land workshops from all different kinds of groups; we couldn’t support SṈIDȻEȽ in the way we do without help from the larger community.

Preparing for the new school year!


            School is back in session, and we are ramping up for another year full of garden and restoration fun! Our team has been hard at work planning and organizing the upcoming workshops for the PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱ Native Plant & Garden Program as well as the Restoration stream for WŚANEĆ School Board students. Each year we build off past successes, and this year will be the best year yet. The students are eagerly awaiting their return to the garden and restoration sites! We can’t wait to kick off another wonderful year of learning and helping strengthen our community.

ṮEṮÁĆES Restoration Initiative

ṮEṮÁĆES Restoration Initiative

ṮEṮÁĆES Restoration Initiative

The latest Reconcili-action project from the ṮEṮÁĆES Team is called the ṮEṮÁĆES Restoration Initiative. It follows up on the   ṮEṮÁĆES Climate Action and ṮEṮÁĆES Revitalization Projects. ṮEṮÁĆES means “Relatives of the Deep” and is the SENĆOŦEN word for the Gulf Islands.

The ṮEṮÁĆES Restoration Initiative is a signage project and will enhance cultural understanding by installing signage and educational artwork at key locations on S,DÁ,YES (Pender Island) that hold significance for the W̱SÁNEĆ people. Each installation will feature place names in SENĆOŦEN and English, explain its traditional significance, and include a QR code linking to educational content about its importance to the W̱SÁNEĆ people. Rose Spahan from Tsartlip Nation is curating the project and engaging W̱SÁNEĆ artists.  Read More about this exciting Project.

The first of these installations was unveiled on August 8th at the ancient  W̱SÁNEĆ  village site of QENEN,IW̱, located at the site that Poets Cove Resort now occupies
The unveiling was accompanied by traditional dancing and signing and featured W̱SÁNEĆ Elders, including Hereditary Chief Eric Pelkey (W̱IĆKINEM) and Belinda Claxton (SELILIYE). The instillation is adjacent to the pre-existing W̱SÁNEĆ 13 moon calendar created by MENEŦIYE.  The installation recognizes the long presence of the W̱SÁNEĆ in Bedwell Harbour and their Reef Net Fishery site there.

Photos: W̱SÁNEĆ community at project launch.
L to R: PENÁW̱EṈ – Pena Elliott, STIWET – James Elliott, SX̱EDŦELISIYE – Renee Sampson, J,SIṈTEN – John Elliott.

Songhees Knowledge Keeper Florence Dick

ReconciliACTION Oak Bay Network – National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 202

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ReconciliACTION in Oak Bay
For the ReconciliACTION Oak Bay Network, September was focused on preparations to honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and in building and extending relationships to support the work.
The Network collaborated with Oak Bay High School on the first school-wide ceremony to mark the day, attended by 1500 students and staff, and connected with a student leader who will join our steering committee as we begin to develop more joint initiatives with the Oak Bay High community. These include planning appropriate ways to use next November’s tenth anniversary of the raising of the Sno’uyutth (“Spreading Good Energy” in Lekwungen) Welcome Pole in front of the high school to assess how far Truth and Reconciliation has been advanced in Oak Bay in the past 10 years and identify ways to accelerate and deepen the commitment in our community over the next 10.
ReconciliACTION representatives have picked up where they left off last spring and have been speaking at the high school ceremony and to classes this fall about the work underway in our community and how students can get involved.
For the fourth year, the ReconciliACTION Oak Bay Network hosted a community ceremony on Sept. 30 at the Sno’uyutth Pole. It was attended by 200 residents, including all six Oak Bay Councillors and the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Murray Rankin. Personal pledges for Truth and Reconciliation were distributed to attendees: https://reconciliactionoakbay.ca/
ROBN also participated in the Victoria Foundation workshop on “Collaborative Leadership for Impact,” reached out to Oak Bay business leaders, and began a conversation with Oak Bay about the potential of creating a shared Council-Community Action Plan on Reconciliation in Oak Bay.
ReconciliACTION in Oak Bay

 

Photos: (Left) Songhees knowledge keeper Florence Dick at the Sept. 30 community ceremony at Oak Bay High School
(Right) Oak Bay High School teacher Steven Price at the Sept. 30 community ceremony at Oak Bay High School