The ceremony, which included a welcome song and traditional dancers, concluded with the almost two dozen Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders at the meeting each taking the chance to address the gathering with pledges to build understanding and respect.
These acts inflame the situation and "are not medicine," said the document signed by the south Island chiefs at a ceremony at the Songhees Nation Wellness Centre.
"They fuel hate and inhibit the healing that is so deeply needed right now," says the document. "The disrespectful and damaging acts we have seen are not helping. They are perpetuating hurt, hate and divide."