Language and Culture

Strengthening Language, Culture, and Captikʷɬ Across Our Work

We are committed to increasing the presence and respectful use of our language, culture, and traditions across all programs and services. This work includes developing a collaborative working group to help guide and schedule seasonal, land‑based, and traditional practices, and thoughtfully integrating ceremony into PIB community events.

Cultural safety is central to this commitment. We will ensure that cultural practices and protocols are understood and upheld by Band staff, leadership, guests, RCMP, and all external contractors who work with or alongside our members. This work will be guided by cultural knowledge keepers and fluent speakers to ensure the best and most respectful use of language, wording, and translation.

A key focus of this initiative is deepening our collective understanding of captikʷɬ teachings, protocols, and laws, and exploring how they can be meaningfully applied as guiding principles in our work planning, service delivery, and governance processes. Together, we will ask important questions such as: What does this mean in practice? What does this look like in our daily work? How do we shape these teachings into our laws and protocols?

Language revitalization and cultural learning opportunities will be offered in ways that honour individual comfort levels—at your own pace, and in a safe, kind, and gentle manner.

This work holds the potential to transform how we view and carry out the work we do for our community. Opportunities for engagement will include community surveys, gatherings, and captikʷɬ learning nights, creating space to learn together, share ideas, and build understanding.

As we move forward collectively, we open ourselves to reconnecting with our pride, strength, and respect—grounded in knowing who we are, how we represent our timxʷulaxʷ, and how we uphold our responsibilities to the timixʷ as those who came before us did.