IGOV students honour Songhees tradition with canoe welcome

What does it mean to be a good visitor?

University of Victoria Indigenous Governance (IGOV) students started off their term in a good way, arriving by canoe at the Songhees Nation and asking for permission to live, study and work in their territory.

The group of 11 master’s students embarked from the bay behind Songhees Wellness Centre, paddling out into the Salish Sea in a traditional canoe. When they returned, students asked Songhees Elders if they could come ashore.

Dawn Smith, an assistant professor with IGOV, says the gesture honours a tradition among lək̓ʷəŋən People on the island. Smith, who is Nuu-chah-nulth but grew up in W̱SÁNEĆ, started the collaboration last year through Songhees Elder Skip Dick.

“He said he had been waiting 20 years for this to happen. The spirit of this is to honour the people of this land—that is a really strong teaching—and to say who you are.

We affirm we’ll walk gently and carefully on these lands."

- Dawn Smith, an assistant professor with IGOV

For IGOV student Kyle Cook—who is part of the Qalipu First Nation and grew up in Mi’kma’ki, unceded Mi’kmaw territory—the canoe welcome helped him connect with local knowledge keepers and understand local cultural protocol.

“It's been so long since I rode in a canoe myself, being on the water felt great,” Cook says. “I also felt great to ask for that permission as well, setting my intentions of what I will do to be a good visitor as I study at the University of Victoria for the next few years.”

Smith says the canoe welcome is part of the way Indigenous Governance is enacting its teachings as a renewed program.

“Good heart, good mind, that’s a philosophy,” Smith says. “This is governance.”