Abstract
The City of Lethbridge is located within the ancestral lands of the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot) peoples, whose traditional territories covers large areas of what is now known as Western Canada and the United States. Lethbridge – like many Canadian cities and those with colonial routes around the world – has in the past several years been grappling with concepts of truth and reconciliation, decolonization and Indigenization. These concepts have forced planners, other professional disciplines and decision-makers to reconsider their relationships to colonial structures, systems and barriers (including the planning profession itself), which for at least the last 150 years have resulted in the physical and narrative removal of Indigenous peoples from their millennial landscapes. The City of Lethbridge has undertaken meaningful efforts to re-think typical approaches to statutory planning that better situate Indigenous voices, perspectives and forms of knowledge as key inputs into the design, delivery and implementation of city planning. Most recently this took place as part of the City’s Municipal Development Plan – Lethbridge City Council’s official development plan for the next 25 – 40 years. The work on the Municipal Development Plan, led by the City’s Planning and Design Department and Indigenous Relations Office, follows other projects initiated by the City to co-design engagement and policy outcomes with Indigenous peoples. This includes the Traditional Knowledge and Use Assessment Project – one of the first, broad-based baseline Indigenous heritage inventorying projects completed by a Canadian city – and the Lethbridge Indigenous Cultural Centre Feasibility Study project, which was recently recognized by the Commonwealth Association of Planners with a 2020 Award for Outstanding Planning in the Commonwealth. These projects highlight a paradigm shift in long-range municipal planning whereby the traditional roles of Indigenous peoples transform from listeners to leaders, and audience to narrator. This subtle yet meaningful shift, repositions Indigenous voices, perspectives and forms of knowledge as key inputs and drivers of city planning. That repositioning supports the incremental decolonization of the policy-making arena and the public realm to then allow Indigenous language, culture and opportunities to thrive. This conference Case Study Report will profile these three City of Lethbridge projects (Municipal Development Plan, Indigenous Cultural Centre Feasibility Study and Traditional Knowledge and Use Assessment) to highlight lessons learned in the following areas: 1) how to co-design engagement with Indigenous (and other underrepresented voices); 2) how to reflect Indigenous and other underrepresented voices within official planning documents (including situating current and future needs within historical contexts); and 3) how to create policy spaces that incrementally deconstruct colonial barriers and enhance quality of life outcomes (social, economic and environmental) for all residents, including both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
