Learning Journey

Xetthecum Ecocultural Mapping: A Learning Journey

This is not a recipe or a set of tools to be picked up and applied elsewhere. It is an account of a learning journey: how a cross-cultural community of practice came together to create an ecocultural map of Xetthecum (Retreat Cove), Galiano Island—what we tried, what we learned, and where we stumbled.

We share it in the hope that it may help others walk their own paths, in ways appropriate to their own places, peoples and protocols.

Territorial Acknowledgment

Galiano Island is located within the shared, asserted, and unceded traditional territories of the Pune’luxutth’, Quw’utsun’, Lamalchi, W̱SÁNEĆ, Hul’q’umi’num’ and SENĆOŦEN-speaking people, and on the territories of the Coast Salish people of Galiano. The island also lies within the shared, asserted, and ceded traditional territories of the Tsawwassen First Nation.

These nations, along with other Hwulmuhw Mustimuhw, continue to serve as the stewards of these lands and waters, having held rights and responsibilities here since time immemorial.

We acknowledge that reconciliation is an active process that depends on an ongoing commitment to fostering healthy relationships of reciprocity and respect among Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members, in recognition of the sovereignty and right to self-determination of all Indigenous peoples in the Salish Sea and beyond.

Xetthecum (Retreat Cove), Galiano Island, British Columbia.

About this documentation

This documentation follows the Xetthecum pilot project through its three phases, from November 2020 to April 2024:

Project Overview