Community Member Support

Responsibilities and Expectations of Community Members

The Nuu-chah-nulth Surf Team’s mission and core vision is reflected in the Rising Tide - Nuu-chah-nulth Surf Teams Mission Statement. Building a community around the youth to help foster empowerment and confidence aligns with the Surf Teams values, and to ensure that Community Member Supporters can engage in a higher-level safe dialogue and practice we will expect them to have a strong background or understanding in Indigenous self-determination.

*note that Community Member Supporters here refers to non-Indigenous community members who wish to be involved and/or support the Nuu-chah-nulth Surf Team.

Specifically, members should have a well developed understanding of colonization, meaning that members should be fairly familiar with the BNA Act (1867)/the Constitution Act (1982), the Indian Act (1876), treaties/unceded land, the reserve system, Residential Schools, the Sixties Scoop, Indian hospitals, and systemic racial discrimination. Equally as important is a knowledge and understanding of historical and ongoing acts of resistance and decolonization such as Idle No More, land and water defences, and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

We respectfully ask people who do not feel they have this level of knowledge yet to pursue their own learning before requesting to become a Community Member Supporter

Community Member Supporters will also be expected to actively foster an environment that is safe for all Nuu-chah-nulth and Indigenous youth and members who are involved with the Nuu-chah-nulth Surf Team. This means that Community Member Supporters should continually reflect on their own positionality, their role in advancing the Nuu-chah-nulth Surf Team, and how this culminates in both cultural safety and humility.