June 4, 2026
The 2026 Land Awards
On June 4, 2026, REFBC honoured two remarkable individuals and five outstanding projects on unceded xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territory.
The 2026 Land Awards was a night of art, storytelling, and community with 250 guests from across the province, who share respect and love for the lands, waters, and people who surround us. Congratulations to the winners, finalists, and nominees for their vital contributions to land use, culture, sustainability, and real estate.
Individual Winners
Land Champion
Winner
Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson is a citizen of, and General Counsel, to, the Haida Nation, a Principal Co-Investigator of the Canada Climate Law Initiative, and currently a PhD candidate at Allard School of Law, UBC.
Her work has fundamentally contributed to reshaping land governance in British Columbia and beyond. Terri-Lynn is deeply committed to protecting the land and its biodiversity, particularly oceans, and engages her peers in the legal profession to engage with issues of climate change.
Emerging Leader
Winner
Janna Wale is a Gitxsan (Gitanmaax First Nation) & Cree-Métis climate researcher, policy advisor, and speaker. As an emerging voice in climate policy and research, Janna combines academic rigour with cultural responsibility, demonstrating that climate action must be rooted in justice, trust, and Indigenous leadership.
By advancing research frameworks that prioritize Nation-led decision-making and lived experience, Janna demonstrates youth leadership that is transformative and grounded in service to community.
Project Winners
Land Use & Conservation
Winner
Centuries of colonization and industrialization have nearly decimated BC’s old-growth ecosystems, which hold critical cultural and ecological significance to First Nations. Totem 2.0 was designed to preserve old-growth trees without restricting culture.
By joining multiple beams of second-growth cedar, the process supports the continuation of an important tradition while addressing declining access to old growth. It also demonstrates how unconventional, respectful partnerships can drive innovative, impactful solutions.
Finalists
Tree of Life Gathering
SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout) First Nation
QEN,T Stewardship Plan
UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship
Reconciliation via ‘Foodsback’ for Quw’utsun Food Systems in the Cowichan Bay Estuary
Fresh Water
Winner
The Nk’eʔxép Management Committee, a project of the Nicola Watershed Governance Partnership, is driving significant innovations in drought management based on shared decision-making and responsibilities, Indigenous knowledge systems, and working together with water users. The committee’s ongoing work has deepened shared decision-making on drought management and prevention, and serves as a model for other regions developing collaborative approaches to drought management.Through this local, collaborative approach, people who live in the watershed are becoming champions for action and part of the solutions.
Finalists
Upper Fraser Fisheries Conservation Alliance
Indigenous-led Aquatic Habitat Monitoring in the Upper Fraser Watershed
Volitional Passage for All Indigenous Salmonids After 100 Years, Okanagan Lake Dam
Shxwlistexw te Sqwa:la Shxweli (Care for the Life Spirit of the Hope Slough)
Built Environment
Winner
This project rescued ten demolition-bound homes from a redevelopment site in Port Moody and relocated them to shíshálh Nation lands. Guided by Chief and Council, the Nation signed an agreement to acquire the ten homes from Wesgroup for use as affordable rental housing.
The 10 homes were transported to shíshálh Nation lands by truck and barge.Once secondary suites were added, the nation gained 17 rental units. When First Nations lead the way, developers embrace creative solutions, and practitioners coordinate complex systems, transformative housing outcomes are possible.
Finalists
Reciprocity Trusts
Ta Skwekwiy̓íntsuts ta Sx̱wéx̱wel (The Valley’s Plan)
City of Vancouver & Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation
Seeding Stewardship
Food Sovereignty
Winner
The Quw’utsun/Xwulqw’selu Estuary Restoration and Food System Revitalization Project is one of the largest estuary restoration projects ever completed on the BC coast. The restoration of this ecosystem, including a plant nursery, is being achieved through the combination of detailed engineering, hydrologic modelling, and ecosystem mapping along with Quw’utsun knowledge keepers and Elders information and stories to re-establish natural processes and revitalize the land.
The Estuary Restoration and Food Systems Revitalization Project is a partnership between Cowichan Tribes, The Nature Trust of BC, Ducks Unlimited Canada, UBC Indigenous Ecology Lab, and the West Coast Conservation Land Management Program.
Finalists
Amisk Farm Indigenous Food Hub
Healing Through Cultural and Land-based Education
Council of the Haida Nation’s Fishery Program
Copper River Coho Camera Project
Real Estate
Winner
Sen̓áḵw is the largest Indigenous-led real estate development in Canadian history, with more than 6,000 purpose-built rental homes on Squamish Nation land at the south end of Vancouver’s Burrard Street Bridge.
Sen̓áḵw will provide generational economic security for Squamish Nation while dramatically increasing Vancouver’s rental housing supply. Architecturally and culturally, the project involves Sḵwx̱wú7mesh artists, knowledge holders, and designers throughout.
Sen̓áḵw represents a new model for Indigenous-led urban development: culturally grounded, financially self-determined, and built for generations.
Finalists
Community Impact Real Estate Society
Impact Support Services
Escheat Act Modernization Project
Judges
Thank you to our esteemed judges for 2026.
Individual Awards Committee
Mavis Underwood, Tiwenomot
Stacey Tyers
Tessicca Truong
Chair: Anthony Bastiaanssen
Staff: Mark Gifford
Land Use and Conservation
Maxine Bruce
Deborah Curran
Cheeying Ho
Dr. Soudeh Jamshidian
Curtis Rattray (Nenh Gluadz)
Chair: Leslie Dickie
Staff: Lou-ann Neel
Fresh Water
Lina Azeez
Rebecca Broadbent
Jenna Duncan (Yéil Gaawku)
Kristen Walters
Keely Gumnax Weget-Whitney
Chair: Anna Warwick Sears
Staff: Natalie Ord
Built Environment
Betsy Agar
Priyanka Chakrabarti
Brenda Knights
Michael Moses
Aaron Pete
Chair: Ahmed Omran
Staff: Deanna Wing, Stephen Hui, and Terra Kaethler
Food Sovereignty
Ve-Jane Duong
Robynne Edgar
Ilana Labow
Edwina Rufus (Tla’ Tla’ ligame)
Jared Qwustenuxun Williams
Chair: Toni Boot
Staff: Stephen Hui
Real Estate
Stephanie Allen
Troy Abromaitis
Irene Gannitsos
Emma Rose Geisser
Dori Munday
Chair: Keith MacLean-Talbot
Staff: Jen McCaffrey
Personalities
Host Nation Welcome
Mary Point
Musqueam Elder Mary Point was the first Community Planner for Musqueam, and currently serves as the Director of Indigenous Relations at YVR Airport and as Relationship Manager for the Musqueam–YVR Sustainability & Friendship Agreement, integrating culture, protocols, and best practices into strategic and operational planning. Having received multiple awards for writing and community action.
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Mary is a recipient of the 2025 King Charles III Coronation Medal for service to community and of the 2026 Chief Gertrude Guerin Visionary Leader Award – she is also a past nominee for YWCA’s Women of Distinction Award for Reconciliation in Action.
Emcee
Madelaine McCallum
Madelaine McCallum is a gifted dancer, energy mover, facilitator, and MC — a true, multi-faceted creative. Originally from Treaty 10 in a Metis community called Ile a la Crosse, SK, Madelaine and brings passion with a gentle yet powerful presence to the stage.
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Madelaine’s story is one of resilience and transformation. Leaving her home community with a commitment to breaking the cycles of addiction, her experiences are a powerful testament to the strength of the human spirit. With her ability to weave powerful stories, both on and off the stage, she helps others feel the invisible threads of connection that bind us all.
Poet
Meredith Graham
Meredith Graham [she/her] is a grateful visitor on the ancestral, unceded—stolen—and resurgent homes and lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm [Musqueam], səlilwətaʔɬ [Tsleil-Waututh], and qiqéyt [Qayqayt] peoples. She is a woman of colour, an alumni of government care, and an artist who has journeyed through many adversities and collected a few mental illnesses along the way.
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She holds a Masters in Child and Youth care from Toronto Metropolitan University, and works with the Ministry of Children and Family Development as a Child Protection Consultant. Meredith believes in the power of arts as a tool for storytelling, therapy, and advocacy and invites everyone to consider their shared responsibility to be an instrument in a person’s Symphony of Resiliency™.
2026 Land Awards Bentwood Boxes
REFBC partnered with Lattimer Gallery to gift each of the 2026 award winners with a cedar box hand-carved and or hand-painted by some of BC’s most exceptional Indigenous artists. These boxes are vessels of culture, identity, resilience, and intergenerational storytelling.
Since 2010, Lattimer Gallery has partnered with artists who donate their time, heart, and talent to create bentwood boxes that are auctioned at an annual fundraising event for Urban Native Youth Association. In support of this powerful initiative, REFBC has donated $10,000 to UNYA through our collaboration with Lattimer Gallery—continuing our shared commitment to community, culture, and impact.
Atheana Picha
Corey Bulpitt
Corrine Hunt
James Michaels
KC Hall
Sharifah Marsden
Steve Smith
Wes Wyse
Explore each Lattimer Gallery x UNYA charity box collection since 2010 and learn about the artists and the stories behind their work at: