On Whose Territory Does Our School District Reside? Beginning Steps Toward Relationship Development With Urban First Nations

Abstract

Following the 2015 release of Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report in Canada, disciplines at various levels of federal and provincial infrastructures have begun taking up reconciliation in their practice. In 2018, the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) and the Psychology Foundation of Canada (PFC) released a joint response, which outlines how the profession has violated its own ethics with respect to practice with Indigenous peoples and how to move forward through a reconciliatory process as individuals and as a profession. What is unclear is how individual psychologists and psychologist teams are taking up reconciliation in their practice, years after the CPA/PFC Response to the TRC. As psychologists and other helping professionals learn about the history of marginalization of Indigenous peoples within the discipline of psychology, many may be searching for more specific examples of how to begin or extend the process of addressing reconciliation. This Brief Commentary will focus on the practice of one group of school psychologists working in a public school district in an urban setting in British Columbia who are engaging in relationship development with First Nations communities on whose territory the district resides. Psychologists from the team will contribute reflections regarding their experience with the process as a whole. These psychologists have been part of a school psychology team that has been involved in reconciliation for some time and are actively pursuing individual and group accountability toward Indigenous people. The context of the group and steps taken from the team’s personal and professional introduction to the topic of reconciliation, and facilitators and considerations that impacted the group’s progress will be explored.