This year, the Education and Training Employees’ Association is proud to announce that the Charles Boylan Memorial Human Rights and International Solidarity Fund in the amount of $1,300 will be awarded to the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation. Our ETEA members are passionate teachers who believe in the importance of language education for career opportunities, academic advancement, immigration, and personal growth. However, we are also aware that the lands on which we teach, work and live are the unceded and traditional territories of numerous First Nations, with ancient, uninterrupted connections to the land and water. We recognize that one of the worst injustices perpetrated by colonialism in what is now called British Columbia has been the degradation of local indigenous languages. Language has always played a central role in culture and identity, and a link to those who have come before us. Fortunately, there is now an effort underway to reduce this trend and revitalize indigenous languages in this province. Leading the way for the past several years has been the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation, an indigenous organization dedicated to “inspir[ing] and empower[ing] British Columbia First Nations to revitalize and enhance their languages, arts and cultures… as we race against time to avoid the extinction of precious Indigenous knowledge, cultures and languages.
Charles Boylan was a long-time activist and educator in BC. A union organizer, passionate human rights defender, candidate for political office, and a force for organized labour in BC, he spent his last years as part of ETEA. He spearheaded our participation in the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators’ Human Rights and International Solidarity Committee, and for a long time he served as ETEA’s committee virtually by himself. He was a mentor to many of us in the union, and often led by example. When he passed in 2017 his legacy was honoured by establishing a memorial fund in his name, to be distributed annually in areas of education, human rights, and social justice. He supported indigenous people and causes, and helped organize speakers’ tours around indigenous issues. We strongly believe that he would agree with the decision to award these funds in his name for 2019-2020. As teachers ourselves, we believe this is a highly appropriate cause, and we hope our modest contribution will help the FPCF’s important and continuing efforts.
The ETEA
