Community and City Education

Before reconciliation can be genuinely effective, truth must come first. The City of New Westminster is committed to truth-telling through education of the community and City staff and Council around our shared colonial history and the resulting collective generational trauma that affects the lives of Indigenous people. 

The City has engaged in many activities that support community and City education. A reconciliation workshop on the legacies of residential schools and the Indian Act was organized for the community, and City staff are encouraged to attend a Medicine Wheel workshop with the Indigenous Relations Advisor. The New Westminster Public Library in partnership with New Westminster Museum and Archives presented a series of four Indigenous films in 2021 with virtual talkbacks lead by local Indigenous community members. New Westminster Museum and Archives’ featured three exhibitions for 2021-2022 to connect community residents with Indigenous culture, interests, and lived experience: Our Living Languages, The 215 and Reconciling. The City regularly partners with the Spirit of the Children Society on projects and programs, such as National Indigenous Peoples Day, and Truth and Reconciliation Day.