Exploring Vancouver’s heritage through data to uncover gaps in preservation and protection.

We acknowledge that the dataset informing our project is deeply embedded in a colonial and settler framework, which has shaped both the data collected and the narratives we can construct. We want emphasize that the methods and structures used to document these heritage sites in Vancouver reflect Eurocentric priorities, and often prioritize settler history while marginalizing or even entirely omitting Indigenous perspectives. Many of the boundaries and categorizations within our dataset stem from colonial-era urban planning, which were created to reinforce a vision of the city that privileges settler landmarks and histories. Figures central to Canada’s expansionist policies are inscribed into the urban fabric rather than the long-standing histories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, which we hope to raise awareness to through this project. While we seek to make this particular history visible, we acknowledge that the dataset’s colonial framing limits how Indigenous heritage is represented. This presents a critical challenge for our stakeholders: how can policymakers and other leaders meaningfully include Indigenous perspectives in heritage site decisions? What would it look like to move beyond settler-defined frameworks and support Indigenous-led heritage mapping that reflects self-determined histories, cultural landscapes, and ways of knowing? We offer this project with the recognition that data is never neutral and that true reconciliation in heritage work requires shifting the foundations upon which heritage is documented, valued, and preserved.