New banners on campus celebrate Lək̓ʷəŋən origin story – UVic News

January 16, 2025

Celebrating people, place and planet is a key commitment for the University of Victoria, as is ʔetalnəw̓əl̓ | ÁTOL,NEUEL | Respecting the rights of one another and being in right relationship with all things. Key to fulfilling these commitments are our relationships with the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and with the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

At the Orange Shirt Day ceremony on Sept. 27, 2024, UVic permanently raised the Survivors’ Flag in recognition of residential school Survivors. Following this, the 215+ banners designed by Carey Newman, which were created as part of UVic’s urgent response to the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s discovery of more than 215 unmarked graves at the Kamloops Residential School site in 2021, were decommissioned.

The retirement of the 215+ banners from flagpoles on UVic’s Gordon Head and Queenswood campuses, and from the Ian Stewart Complex and Marine Technology Centre, created space for 48 new banners with Indigenous artwork to be displayed.

Read More: https://www.uvic.ca/news/topics/2025+new-banners-on-campus+news