Every Wednesday at New Westminster City Hall, we have soup and bannock with staff and our Elder in Residence, Elder William. Here are a few of us making bannock today.
We call our soup and bannock lunches, 'tawâw'. The meaning of tawâw (a Cree word pronounced ta-WOW) — 'there is room', 'you are welcome'. We borrowed it from the cookbook of the same name by Shane Chartrand, an Indigenous Chef.
The impact this weekly lunch is having on staff is difficult to describe, but the word 'profound' always comes to mind. Sitting and eating soup and bannock with an Indigenous Elder and residential school survivor, and with one another is breaking down walls and building bridges, not just between Indigenous and non-Indigenous, but between staff and leadership, council and community and department to department. It is breaking down silos and encouraging vulnerability, humanity and kindness. Elder William calls City of New Westminster staff, "family". We are building a real community together simply by sharing a bowl of soup and a laugh. There is no expectation, there is no agenda and there are no barriers. The only rule we have is to leave your title at the door.
It is so simple and so impactful and as an Indigenous woman working within a colonial government, I can personally say that it is healing each and every one of us in very different ways.
O siem. 🙏
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