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I am pleased to inform you that UBC’s Indigenous Strategic Plan has now been finalized. This is a momentous occasion for UBC, as we take a leading role in the advancement of Indigenous peoples’ human rights. We are the first university in North America to commit to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and to take a human rights-based approach to its Indigenous strategic framework.
To celebrate the plan and the advancement of Indigenous human rights at UBC, I would like to invite you to the UBC Vancouver celebration on September 14.
While COVID-19 prevents us from being able to hold this celebration in person, a virtual event does provide the unique opportunity for our community outside of Vancouver to join us – I really hope you can attend. We look forward to sharing details of the UBC Okanagan celebration in due course.
About the event
The celebration will feature guest speakers including Musqueam Elder Larry Grant, ʔaʔsiwɬ Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, other Indigenous leaders and human rights experts as well as a panel discussion with representatives from our Indigenous student, faculty, staff and alumni communities.
Further details are as follows:
Date: September 14
Time: 1pm – 2:30pm
Location: Zoom
RSVP before September 11: https://ubc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9jDXDMbiT_6FB7GY0kBKqw
About the Indigenous Strategic Plan
The Indigenous Strategic Plan sets out a series of eight goals and 43 actions the university will collectively take, in the implementation of Indigenous peoples’ human rights.
The plan is the university’s response to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Calls for Justice. It is also UBC Vancouver’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. A number of you witnessed UBC Okanagan’s formal declaration of commitments to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action last fall.
It was created with input from more than 2,500 students, faculty and staff across our campuses and learning sites – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous – as well as from Indigenous community partners.
You can read the plan in full at https://indigenous.ubc.ca/indigenous-engagement/indigenous-strategic-plan/.
As was retold and reinforced throughout the plan’s creation, the environment and culture at UBC still has a long way to go in order for Indigenous students, faculty and staff to feel at home and to be able to thrive here. This plan isn’t the end – it is one step in the process.
I hope you will join me on September 14 to celebrate this significant moment in our university’s history.
Santa J. Ono
President and Vice-Chancellor
This message was sent to faculty, staff and students in Vancouver and the Okanagan.
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