The City of Humboldt, the Indigenous Advisory Circle & Heritage Saskatchewan

2025 Governors Awards

Land Based Learning | City of Humboldt

The National Trust for Canada’s Board of Governors has presented the City of Humboldt, the Indigenous Advisory Circle & Heritage Saskatchewan with a Governors’ Award for their leadership in the pilot project Relationship Building and Reconciliation through Living Heritage.  

Launched in January 2023, this initiative explored how the living heritage of the Humboldt region could serve as a platform to foster reconciliation and build meaningful connections across Indigenous and settler communities. Guided by the principles of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the project brought people together through shared cultural experiences and open dialogue. 

Central to the project was the City of Humboldt’s Indigenous Advisory Circle, whose guidance and wisdom shaped every step of this work. The Circle included Bryan McNabb (George Gordon First Nation), Melanie Gray (Rama First Nation), Crystal Longman Francis (George Gordon First Nation), Taylor Severight (Yellow Quill First Nation), and the late Elder Gilbert Kewistep (Yellow Quill First Nation).  

Working in partnership with Heritage Saskatchewan, the Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery Office, the Office of the Treaty Commissioner, and the Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan, this project help to build lasting connections and inspire new public art and programming, set to launch in 2025. 

The Governors have chosen to highlight this project as a powerful example of how heritage can advance reconciliation, foster dialogue, and strengthen connections between communities.