Salish Dancer and Unity Totem Pole

Victoria Unity Feast

First Nations Dancer and Unity Pole carved by Charles Elliot and erected at Victoria Police headquarters.

Victoria Police Department
and the
Songhees Nation
Celebrate

August 7, 1999

Pledge of Unity

" Today on August 7th 1999 as we come together to honour our First Nations Peoples, we hereby pledge from this day forth, to build a community which is respectful of all persons, regardless of their gender, cultural, ethnic or religious backgrounds. Let us build in unity the world of our millenium, enriched by this diversity and strengthened by the spirit of compassion. "

The Unity Feast was first considered by Sgt. Gary Green in April 1998. Gary is a member of the Victoria Police Diversity Unit, and he had just finished delivering a series of slide presentations to police officers on the history of First Nations on the coast. Gary's presentations, which he calls The Broken Circle , were met by a tremendous response by his fellow officers.

Gary presented his idea of a Unity Feast to other members of the Diversity Unit. He describe it as a way to promote healing among cultures, increase the level of positive interaction among police officers and aboriginals, for all cultures to honour First Nations, and an opportunity to raise a totem as a symbol of our unity.

The dedication of the Totem and the Feast involved members of all ethnic groups in the City of Victoria. The celebration attracted over one thousand guests and included dances from many cultural groups in the City. It was a sharing of our "one-ness" typified by the two Chiefs who welcomed the guests - Chief Robert Sam of the Songhees Nation and Chief of Police Paul Battersill. A Celebration of Unity which brought us all together in a healing feast and an uplifting of the human spirit.

Hy'ch-ka - (THANK YOU ALL) Courtesy of Victoria First Nations, Victoria Police Department and Cashsave.com