Invitation to Witness New Indigenous Staff Blanketing Ceremony and New Employee Welcome Events

Annual New Employee Welcome events

Three New Employee Welcome events take place in person and online on January 23^rd & 24^th 2024.

New Indigenous staff welcome and honouring ceremony

All employees are invited to participate as a witness to the Blanketing Ceremony.

2024 is the first time new Indigenous staff are invited to participate in a welcoming and honouring blanketing ceremony. All employees are invited to participate as witnesses to this ceremony. This is an incredible way to learn and participate in Coast Salish culture and protocol, which aligns with UVic’s renewed Indigenous Plan.

Organization Development and Learning Services (ODLS), in close partnership with Office of the Vice-President Indigenous (OPVI) and Indigenous Academic & Community Engagement (IACE) share the hope that by participating in, or witnessing this ceremony you will learn about our collective commitment to the first teaching Héʔəkʷ ʔə cə čəléŋən ɫtə | HÁEQ TE OL TŦE ĆELÁ EN TE| Remember our ancestors and birthright sets the goal: All members of the university community understand and demonstrate how to live, learn and work in right relationships with local lands, waters and laws.

The first two priorities of this goal link directly to employee’s participation in the Blanketing Ceremony:

1.1.1 Include Indigenous cultural competencies in staff and faculty hiring, training and retention strategies, ensuring that all employees know the laws and histories of these territories and are prepared to live in right relationship to this place.

1.1.2 Review and revise orientation programs and materials to ensure all students, staff and faculty coming to the university understand local histories, lands, and protocols.

As Dr. Skip Dick (Songhees Elder) says in his opening remarks of the Indigenous Plan:

“You have a responsibility to take care, to be living as a community, to not lose what it means to be a human being with other human beings.”

What a special opportunity for us to engage and participate! Please visit the event website for more information about the ceremony.

Blanketing Ceremony event: Tuesday January 23rd, 2024; 9:00am – 12:30pm

You can witness in one of the following ways:

Ceremony Participation:

If you yourself are Indigenous and a new employee and would like to request permission to live and work on these lands by taking part in the blanketing ceremony, or you are from these territories and would like to be blanketed, please complete the registration form. If you have any questions, please connect with Lalita Kines or Margaret Charlie who will share more detailed information about the ceremony and next steps.

Please visit the event website for more information or get in touch with us at odls1@uvic.ca if you have any questions about logistics.

New Employee Welcome (online)

An informative session where new employees will be given opportunities to participate in conversations designed to highlight our university culture, values, and community, while meeting other new people from various spaces on campus.

Date: 9AM - 12PM, January 24th, 2024 (online)

This online event will be shortly followed by a new employee lunch. Further details below and on the events page. Please register for both sessions.

New Employee Lunch

Join us on Wednesday, January 24th, 2024 12:15PM - 2PM in Sŋéqə ʔéʔləŋ House - Conference Room A.

This is a casual lunch event meant to bring together the folks who have joined the university since August 2022. Come and get to know your colleagues! For more information please visit the new employee events page. Space is limited. Register soon!