In 2016, CBRC endorsed the Canada Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action at our annual Summit. Endorsement involved changing the way that the CBRC community recognizes Two-Spirit community members and centres their voices. Recognition would no longer be limited to participation as spectators. Instead, Two-Spirit people would become fully integrated into the culture of the organization and the delivery of our programs.
The following year, CBRC hosted a unique Two-Spirit Rites of Passage ceremony, intended to offer non-Indigenous Summit participants a traditional Indigenous worldview of how to foster community wellbeing. The ceremony was led by Coast Salish Elders Florence James, from the Penelakut Tribes, and Bill White, from the Snu’ney’muxhw First Nation.
As part of his on-going work with CBRC, Rocky James, Coast Salish Emissary for the organization authored a summary of CBRC’s Truth and Reconciliation process between 2016 and 2019. The summary focuses on decolonizing our annual event, Summit (formerly the Summit for Gay Men’s Health), and how we used the event to build relationships with Coast Salish Elders and other Two-Spirit community members.