Indigenizing Urban Planning in “Vancouver”: The ʔəy̓alməxw / Iy̓álmexw [Jericho Lands] Redevelopment as an Indigenous urbanism

Abstract

This thesis examines Indigenous urbanism in the city of Vancouver, specifically in its emergence through the redevelopment of the Jericho Lands site by the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Using the Policy Statement created for the redevelopment and the video recording of the City Council Meeting where the Policy Statement was approved, this thesis argues that the identified themes and their interplay and interconnections constitute a specific form of Indigenous urbanism that is working to transform planning paradigms and inserts the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh into the process of spatial production in Vancouver. By using a blended grounded theory and case study approach, the findings emerge inductively from the data, revealing the intentions, values, processes, and methodologies as described by the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations themselves. In respecting Indigenous knowledge and voices, this thesis does not reinterpret or discover what this knowledge is but rather aims to analyze it at the crossroads of Indigenous studies, urban theory, and the processes of spatial production. Using Lefebvre’s theory on the production of (social) space, this thesis investigates how the production of knowledge by the three Nations that occurs in the creation of the Policy Statement and the planning stages of the redevelopment allows the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh to enter Lefebvre’s conceived dimension as producers of knowledge. Further, this role in the production of space has implications for conceptualizations of Indigenous and urban space, helping to deconstruct these understandings as they have been constituted by settler-colonialism. Thus, Indigenous urbanism as it emerges through the plans for the Jericho Lands redevelopment presents new approaches to planning and helps to constitute urban areas built on Indigenous territories as Indigenous spaces.