SFU team receives accolades for First Nations Witnessing Ceremony

By Justin Wong

SFU’s reconciliation witnessing ceremony last fall won the 2018 Prix D’ Excellence Silver award in the Best Special Event category.

The SFU Ceremonies and Events team organized the occasion with the Office for Aboriginal Peoples in collaboration with various stakeholders that included both Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members.

At this special event, the SFU Aboriginal Reconciliation Council presented its calls to action for reconciliation to SFU president Andrew Petter. The traditional Coast Salish witnessing ceremony, Kwis Ns7eyx̱to, which is how Coast Salish people document and record their oral histories, celebrated and honoured the work that went into the council’s final report, summoning the university to commence action in four key areas.

The Prix D’Excellence is an annual awards program of the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE). The program recognizes outstanding achievements in alumni affairs, public affairs, communications, marketing, development, advancement services, stewardship, student recruitment and overall institutional advancement.

The CCAE judges’ report said they had awarded this honour to SFU in recognition of the university’s in-depth consultation process with both internal and external stakeholders. The judges felt the time invested in this process helped create a meaningful event.