Vancouver, Canada - Fall 2022

Ok Vancouver, here are my final takeaways… a soaring city surrounded by water, beaches, sea walls and boats of all types and sizes. Beautiful glass towers with lots of architectural variety and innovation. The 2010 Olympics clearly opened up A LOT of development and the city has grown and flourished ever since. Tall lush green pines and other street trees are required on sidewalks and really add to the overall look and outdoorsy feeling. Sparkling clean sidewalks. First Nations/indigenous imagery is everywhere, hopefully a sign that people are being elevated on many levels. Legal cannabis shops are prevalent, though somehow I forgot to take a picture. Innovative street redesign to incentivize bikes and alternative transit instead of cars. And sadly, a real problem with homelessness and street drug use at levels I’ve never seen before. All in all it was a wonderful trip!

Click HERE to see my photos from Vancouver

First Nations People in Vancouver, Canada

When I travel I try to dig deep and learn what places are talking about. After being in eastern Canada earlier this year, I saw how hard communities are trying to grapple with their past history with indigenous First Nations peoples. This means both elevating and centering those people that were here before colonialism and still present today. It also means re-telling history in a way that uncovers some things that has been brushed under the rug. In Nova Scotia I noticed how historical markers were being changed. But in Vancouver there seemed to be much more being done.

In these photos you will see ways First Nations art and imagery is all over, but the effort goes a lot deeper. I went to two museums focusing on their history and many of the local conference presenters touched on issues and even more interestingly, First Nation tribes are being given certain opportunities that are allowing them to benefit financially from the growth of Vancouver. For instance, they are allowed to follow different zoning rules and able to build a lot and also become much valued partners to other developers because their benefits can make projects more financially successful for all parties involved.

(This is complicated to put into short FB words, but I was just impressed that there is more than cultural lip service and instead there is a current and active tribal presence and Canada has found ways for money to trickle down. I didn’t learn enough to teach you all, but I did see what seemed like positive progress in what will take a long time to fix.)