The Witness Project is a partnership between the Roundhouse Community Centre and members of the Squamish Nation. The Witness Project represents an invitation for all people to engage in cultural and ecological dialogue through the arts, outdoor recreation, historical analysis, community building and First Nations Ceremony. Each weekend consists of First Nations Ceremony, hikes in the old growth forest, programmed workshops, camp fires, fun and relaxation. Witness participants will be exposed to a broad range of ideas from the Witness facilitators who include members of the Squamish Nation, mountaineers, ecologists, community activists and performance artists. UTS'AM - WITNESS

"For me personally, the subtle act of bearing witness is to dispel violence".

These goals are often referred to as the "work" that is being done in Sims Creek. Some of them include: Re-connection with the land / strengthening relationship to the land / celebrating nature. Participation in a traditional Coast Salish Witness ceremony. Cross-cultural education and interdisciplinary collaboration. Raising consciousness to become historical agents for change.

"The project actually started as a 'group-with-no-name' in the late summer of 1995. Legendary BC mountaineer, John Clarke, and myself, (art student at Emily Carr at the time), began car-pooling groups of people from the city for a weekend of camping in a temperate rainforest, about to be clear-cut logged. Volunteers such as Rick Hurney, Doug Brown and Heather Kirk, were instrumental in the running of these initial car-pooling weekends. Ta-lall-semkin, siem, Hereditary Chief Bill Williams of the Squamish Nation joined our efforts in 1996, and, with that, introduced the notion and significance of the 'Witness' ceremony, practiced by his culture for thousands of years.