Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Robert Bartlett celebrated his one-year work anniversary with səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) on March 4, 2025 and shares his reflections on his time at the Nation below:
Weaving Culture into the Modern Workplace
On my first day as CAO at Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN) one year ago, I was honoured to learn from Members about Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s long history, culture, and deep ties to the lands and waters of their traditional territory. Since then, I’ve seen the community’s values of integrity, respect for tradition, and reciprocity come to life in our workplace.
We’re a large organization and face all the challenges of the modern, Western world, but through TWN culture, we find a strength that I have not found in other organizations. That strength allows us to stay focused and to move projects forward.
For budgeting, we use a cultural lens and commit to agile leadership when we examine our metrics and project dashboards to show value for money to meet the community’s needs. Learn more about our investments in community in our 2023-2024 TWN Annual Report.
For our meetings, we often start with a cultural welcome or prayer and end in song. We do this to provide a safe space for participants in any meeting, allowing all to speak freely but still feel protected and respected in what they have to say. Everyone’s contributions matter. Because of the respect shown in the way we conduct ourselves, when we make a decision on the final direction, no one feels left behind.
I enjoy seeing the synergy of TWN cultural values integrated with western business practices to form a true representation of the organization, without sacrificing culture nor investment. I had an amazing experience spending the day in a longhouse during a multi-Nation stakeholder meeting, with complex decision making at play. A multimillion dollar balance between delivering business outcomes whilst embracing the historical values that Nations have. By the end, we had achieved our goals through culture, history, and sharing. That day was one of the most impactful moments of my career – seeing how the Nation’s culture and history should and do influence business decisions.
There is so much to learn from the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s approach to the challenges of the modern world in terms of how we lead an organization, to nurture staff, and to keep our focus on those we serve. I welcome you to come meet with us; we’re happy to share how business and culture can synergize and make any organization stronger.
Leadership Journey
From that first day forward, we’ve been on a journey to create a Truth Document for the Nation, which will tell the story of Tsleil-Waututh Nation. For too long, the Nation’s history has remained in the shadows—TWN leadership has decided that now is the time to share their history with Members and broadly with the world.
This past year has been one of learning and growth, with clear priorities placed on support for Tsleil-Waututh Elders and youth. With Elders, there has been a focus on drawing out stories and lessons of the past that can guide us on addressing today’s challenges and setting us up for culturally respectful knowledge exchange and language revitalization, to guide our next seven generations. For youth, we are seeking to strengthen outreach and recreation programming and youth internships with our external partners. We face all the challenges of any organization, but we want to ensure all of our Members are protected and supported to be the best they can be, whether that’s our artists, future construction workers, and entrepreneurs. We have an obligation to provide the best education that we can, and we do.
We have an amazing Council who cares deeply about the community. We’ve held multiple Council workshops to explore how best Council can be the voice for community and support Members. Council has closely implemented their Strategic Plan – with the five pillars being our guiding lights – to ensure our community is paddling together, and that no one is left behind. Council is always open to meeting with Members. Beyond hosting and attending engaging community events throughout this past year, Council also launched Members Nights with Council, which is bimonthly session where Council sits and hears from Members directly on the topics and concerns that matter to them.
We’re aiming to make the best staff investments now to ensure we have the right people in the right positions at the Nation, to serve Membership’s evolving needs. Learning about what changes we need to make to break down silos is an ongoing process. My goal is to integrate all teams more seamlessly so we achieve collaborative thinking and results.
The Importance of Wellness
Staff’s wellbeing is important to me. We have excellent benefits, so I encourage all of us to look after ourselves. We are a growing organization with competing demands on our time so we may feel a lot of pressure to achieve results, but we need to also take time to pause, regroup, connect, and support one other.
I’m excited about our plans to develop a purpose-built Primary Care Centre in community that will integrate Tsleil-Waututh culture and provide safe, culturally-appropriate care for Members seeking support. This Centre will build upon the amazing health and wellness care and programs provided by our ćećǝwǝt lelǝm Helping House.
Our Success is Built Upon Partnerships
We base our work on relationships and what is right and fair. We’re involved in many projects and agreements centered upon asserting rights and title while also bringing to light Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s history, language, and culture through our Truth Document.
We recently partnered with the 2025 Vancouver-Whistler Invictus Games and shone a light on the Nation by bringing our elected leaders, youth, and artists forward on the world stage.
During this past year, our Council has met with various levels of government, the United Nations, the Port of Vancouver, Simon Fraser University, and many others to foster relationships and ensure TWN is recognized in our core territory, with the goal of providing the foundation for the next seven generations to thrive.
Our success is linked to the strength of our partnerships. We’ve started many partnership discussions this past year that will link to key Membership opportunities such as training, jobs, contracts for Member-owned businesses, and support for the most vulnerable in our community.
On March 7, 2025, Chief Jen Thomas and the Honourable Gary Anandasangaree, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, signed a new Reconciliation Agreement as an incremental step towards reconciliation. This marked a significant milestone towards strengthening our Nation-to-Nation relationship.
Relationship-building also relates to housing – we’re renovating homes and constructing a much-needed rental building in the community, an active partnership with BC Housing. These different initiatives will help Members step forward into the future they want. It is challenging, and we regularly receive feedback from Members on ways we can improve, which we’ll continue to take into account as we move forward.
Partnerships also matter when it comes to the health of səlilwət (Burrard Inlet). As People of the Inlet, Tsleil-Waututh Members have long been custodians of the lands, water, and air that surround the Inlet. We’ve put our best foot forward to restore the quality of the lands and waters of the traditional territory, which is why we are prioritizing scientifically-based restoration efforts, enhancing ecotourism strategies, and entering into partnerships that will help us achieve our goals. Take a look at our interactive Restoring a Healthy Inlet StoryMap for more about why this work matters to the Nation.
We’ve come far, which is evident in the revitalization of Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s culture, economy, hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language, and assertion of rights and title. We maintain a high standard of education at our siʔáḿθət School where our students are learning on the land, speaking their language, and embracing cultural ways of being and knowing.
If you’re seeking to support us, we have a TWN Community Society that empowers Tsleil-Waututh Nation Members by providing direct funding for small but impactful activities they create and implement.
Every year, we honour Tsleil-Waututh Residential School survivors and those Members we lost on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Orange Shirt Day). As a way to support our Tsleil-Waututh Nation Survivors, consider donating to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Residential School Survivors Fund.
If you’d like to work with the Nation, we have many impactful roles across seven departments – visit our careers page for details. There are also opportunities to work closely with Tsleil-Waututh businesses and entrepreneurs.
Local residents and visitors alike are welcome to join us on the water for a guided tour of the traditional territory through Takaya Tours.
As we look to build longhouses up Indian Arm and at Whey-ah-Wichen (Cates Park), we’re seeking partners aligned with our values to come with us on this journey. ʔəxʔixəltəl̓ (paddling together), we can move forward on our goals while lifting up the community together.
If you would like more details on our core territory document, jurisdiction document, ecotourism initiatives, environmental restoration projects, partnership and employment opportunities, or other areas, please explore our website and reach out to me on LinkedIn or email communications@twnation.ca.
