REFBC Releases Draft Plan to Take Action on UNDRIP

We all love the lands and waters we call home.

Indeed, it’s hard to overstate the significance of our relationships to land and real estate in what’s known as British Columbia. They are at the heart of the economic, social, cultural, and environmental challenges and opportunities we face as people and communities.  

For more than 150 years, a system of colonial laws, policies, and practices has shaped land use and real estate in BC. It has literally and figuratively laid foundations, paved roads, and built bridges to homes, livelihoods, and communities for generations of settlers. Through the planning, development, use, and sale of land, this system has generated enormous sums of private and public wealth.   

At the same time, this system has ignored and violated the sovereignty, laws, rights, title, and cultures of First Nations and displaced Indigenous Peoples from the lands they’ve occupied and stewarded since time immemorial. Colonial laws, policies, and practices have been instrumental in the genocide of Indigenous Peoples and caused degradation of the lands and waters essential for cultural, economic, and environmental vitality. So much of the harm, so few of the benefits.

The Real Estate Foundation of BC (REFBC) is on a journey of truth and reconciliation. As a philanthropic organization, we are trying to take meaningful steps — to listen, learn, and act. We are trying to build and strengthen respectful and reciprocal relationships with First Nations and Indigenous Peoples in our work across BC.

With a mission to advance sustainable, equitable, and socially just land use in BC, and a money story linked to real estate transactions, we are a creature of colonial approaches to land use and real estate. The tensions within the stories of our mission, money, and impact present both challenges and opportunities — in terms of how we can share relationships, funding, and decision-making power in a manner that recognizes Indigenous Peoples’ ways of knowing, laws, rights, and title. 

The results of our early steps have encouraged us to dream bigger and commit to transforming our grantmaking, operations, and governance to align with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). In making this work visible and seeking input, we hope that First Nations, Indigenous-led organizations, and settler-led organizations will see opportunities to reconsider, reimagine, and reform our relationships with one another and to land and real estate.

Today (October 24), REFBC is excited to share a draft report, titled Transformative Actions for the Advancement of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (TAUA). The TAUA is prepared by Tara Marsden/Naxginkw, founder and proprietor of Hlimoo Sustainable Solutions and REFBC’s first UNDRIP Fellow.

The draft report outlines how UNDRIP articles relate to REFBC’s work. Most importantly, the TAUA identifies 50 actions in support of UNDRIP implementation for the Foundation consider.

Starting now, we are opening a four-month period of First Nations engagement on the TAUA. Dialogue and input from First Nations, the title and rightsholders of their territories, will be critical to creating an effective UNDRIP action plan. We will also be seeking feedback from Indigenous-led organizations and Indigenous partners and advisors connected to REFBC.

Starting in January 2024, we intend to engage REFBC grantees, organizations in the real estate sector, and the broader public on the TAUA and provide opportunities for comment. We plan to conclude TAUA engagement on February 29, 2024.

The input we collect will help us create REFBC’s first UNDRIP action plan and put our UNDRIP commitments into policy and practice. For updates, please subscribe to our newsletter.

If you have comments or questions, please contact us at undrip@refbc.ca.