Latest news with #HeiltsukFirstNation
CBC
27-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
B.C. Premier David Eby says he supports the tanker ban on the province's North Coast
Despite Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's push to pump crude oil to British Columbia, B.C. Premier David Eby says his government backs the federal tanker ban that prohibits oil tankers from stopping, loading, or unloading at protected area ports on the province's North Coast. "This is a pristine ecological area that produces huge benefits for British Columbia and also is an increasing corridor, generally speaking, for cargo," Eby told CBC's Daybreak North on Tuesday. "That's why we support the existing oil tanker ban." The tanker ban prohibits oil tankers plying B.C.'s North Coast from carrying more than 12,500 metric tons of crude oil or persistent oil products as cargo. But Eby won't directly say if he is against a future pipeline to the area, something Smith has said she's actively searching for interested private sector companies to fund. While the premier has said he's open to a discussion with the Alberta premier if a private proponent came to the table, he says he's more interested in the $50 billion in resource and energy projects already under development in B.C. "The challenge for me is that the conversation has been almost exclusively about a project that doesn't actually exist. There's no proponent; there's no money," Eby said. "I would prefer very much that we stay focused on what actually exists, what's ready to go through environmental assessment processes, or nearly." Marilyn Slett, chief councillor of the Heiltsuk First Nation and president of the Coastal First Nations/Great Bear Initiative, says she wants clarity on Eby's commitment to protect the area. "Certainly there's a contradiction, you know, in terms of supporting privately funded oil pipelines on the North Coast and that direct contradiction of his, you know, supposed support to the oil tanker moratorium," said Slett. "We need to know whether or not he's changed his stance, you know, on protecting the coast," Slett said. Eby says there are other projects apart from a potential pipeline that can benefit both British Columbia and Alberta. When asked by a CBC reporter whether his support of an oil tanker ban on the North Coast ruled out the idea of a northern pipeline, the premier sidestepped the issue, replying: "I think that if we're talking about benefiting Canada's economy, if we're talking about growing British Columbia's economy and opportunities, and Alberta's too, let's focus on the projects where there are actually proponents and we're ready to go," said Eby. 'Federal radar' LNG Canada began producing liquefied natural gas, a fossil fuel often extracted from northeastern B.C. and Alberta, for export at its facility in Kitimat, B.C., on Sunday. According to the B.C. government, the facility is expected to export 14 million tonnes of LNG a year, creating close to 300 ongoing jobs worth an estimated $575 million annually for 40 years. In May, a new 44-square kilometre gold and silver mine officially opened in the province's central Interior, southwest of Vanderhoof, B.C., and west of Prince George. The mine is approved with an economic and community development agreement with the Lhoosk'uz Dené Nation and Ulkatcho First Nation to share mineral tax revenue from the mine. Ebys says the two First Nations are equity partners in the project. "And this is the model that you're going to see and are seeing increasingly across the province," Eby said. When it comes to the spectre of a possible oil pipeline, Eby says no discussions with First Nations have yet occurred because the project doesn't exist. "There are lots of conversations underway with First Nations on actual projects that have actual proponents that actually are through or going through the environmental assessment process," said Eby. "B.C. has a hard enough time getting on the federal radar at all, and we have such huge projects with such consequential impacts for Canada's GDP, for prosperity, for our province, than to have the discussion be about a nonexistent project because Alberta wants to talk about it."
Global News
07-06-2025
- General
- Global News
Lost for over a century, Heiltsuk Nation celebrates return of bentwood box
The Heiltsuk First Nation is celebrating the return of a precious piece of history, lost to their people for more than a century. The nation held a special reunification ceremony for the bentwood box last Friday that coincided with a feast to mark the ratification of their written constitution. 'I was very emotional,' said Christine Smith Martin, CEO of Coastal First Nations, who helped facilitate the return of the box from an American family to the Heiltsuk Nation. 2:03 Heiltsuk Nation ratifies new written constitution through celebratory feast 'We really want to tell art collectors or whoever may have boxes similar to this, the right thing to do is to bring it home, to make sure those boxes make it home if they can because its an important piece for us, there' s a lot of teachings on that box, there's a lot of things artists might not have seen yet.'' Story continues below advertisement Bentwood boxes were specialized, watertight containers fabricated from a single piece of cedar wood that has been steamed and curved, then fastened shut with wooden pegs. Elroy white, an archeologist, hereditary chief and elected councillor with the Heiltsuk, said they were used to carry trade goods up and down the coast, as well as for the storage of important items like instruments or regalia. They were also used to store and prepare food. He said the Heiltsuk became well known for their skill in crafting the boxes in the 1860s, after their population was decimated by smallpox and came together in a single community. Ethnographers who visited the community documented them and spread the word, and soon collectors and academics from around the world began seeking them out. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'That was their premise, that they were going to preserve this cultural way of these First Nations, they were called Indians back then,' he said. 'They were either sold or they were coerced from the owners.' The provenance of this particular box is unknown, Elwood said, save that it passed through collections and galleries before being purchased in Vancouver in 2020. He believes it was made some time in the 1880s, but said that when items pass through galleries their back history is typically not shared, and information like the artist who made them is lost. Story continues below advertisement That's when Janet and Dave Deisley, a couple from Salt Lake City, Utah, purchased it at the Douglas Reynolds Gallery on Granville Street. 2:11 Heiltsuk Nation celebrates 'powerful, emotional' return of historic chief's seat 'After Dave bought the box we had we had it in our home for a couple of years,' Janet Deisley told Global News. But the item never felt right in the couple's collection, and they decided to return it — free of charge — reaching out to Coastal First Nations for help in connecting it to the Heiltsuk. 'The community in which those artifacts were created is where they belong from a spiritual sense,' Dave Diesley said. 'I would imagine they felt what we felt when we had it in our office for that short time. You can feel. It's like a piece of an ancestor wanting to come home … you look at it and you see that history in there,' Martin said. Story continues below advertisement 'I would imagine they felt that yearning, because it's not just a box, there are spirits that are attached to it, there are ancestors that are attached to that.' Coastal First Nations accepted the box, but it stayed in their office for some time as they worked to arrange an appropriate return. White came to Vancouver to authenticate the box and work on the best way and time to get it home safely. 'I knew it would have no back history, but the important part was …. it was still important to the Heiltsuk,' he said. 'Elroy came down and did some ceremony in our office, and we had a talk to the box and let them know they are going home now. It's been a long journey as you can imagine, since the 1800s, since this box has been away from their territory.' 2:11 Heiltsuk Nation hold constitution ratification ceremony Last week, the box was honoured in the Heiltsuk big house in Bella Bella as a part of the constitution ceremonies, and members had the opportunity to get up close and see a piece of their lost history. Story continues below advertisement 'It was so heartfelt to see that, seeing the artists looking at it and sort of pointing out different things,' Martin said. For White, it is just one step in the ongoing process to repatriate Heiltsuk culture that was taken from the community and now resides in museums, galleries and private collections around the world. The nation has spent decades building a database of items and has identified 34 institutions around the world that house more than 1,000 Heiltsuk items. They've repatriated four items since 2022, including a historic chief's seat that was returned to the community last summer. It's work that White intends to continue, and that Martin hopes will have more success. 'I hope that we have many more of these boxes,' she said.
CBC
06-02-2025
- Politics
- CBC
'A dream come true': Heiltsuk Nation voting to adopt written constitution
For 80-year-old Hilistis Pauline Waterfall, seeing the Heiltsuk Nation adopt a written constitution would be a "dream come true." Waterfall was taken to residential school at age 12, she says and had to spend years relearning her culture, language and history. Now a knowledge-keeper and Order of B.C. recipient, she is one of the people who drew on her learnings to help shape the new constitution, which is being voted on by members of the Heiltsuk First Nation on British Columbia's Central Coast. A statement from the nation says the historic referendum follows nearly two decades of development and consultation, including six months of engagement with more than 2,000 Heiltsuk members in Bella Bella, Nanaimo and Vancouver. If approved, it says the constitution will help the nation "reclaim its power." "Prior to [colonization], we had a really vibrant infrastructure that included our oral constitution," Waterfall said in an interview with CBC Radio West host Sarah Penton. "We had a justice system where we had our own laws... built by consensus. Everybody, even children, knew what their roles and responsibility were." Much of this was wiped out, she said, by the imposition of the Indian Act and the outlawing of those cultural traditions. But, she said, "we're now at a place" for it to be restored. Marilyn Slett, elected Chief of the Heiltsuk, says the nation is proud of the work that has gone into "reconstituting" its governance system with the written constitution, which lays out a legal framework for Heiltsuk governance, rights, responsibilities and law-making. The statement says the constitution would help provide clarity for the nation and those it chooses to do business with, clearing up questions around decision-making in Heiltsuk territory that had previously been left to the courts. It says the constitution also enshrines collaboration between elected Heiltsuk officials and ancient forms of governance, such as hereditary chiefs. "We have never ceded, surrendered or extinguished our inherent right to govern the Hailzaqv people and our [territory]," hereditary chief Frank Brown says. The written constitution reflects the nation's "paramount values," he says. "It is intended to support and guide current and future generations in the governance of our nation, and we eagerly await the outcome of this historic referendum." Other nations to adopt written constitutions include the Nisga'a Lisims and Haida, both of which have taken control over much of their self-government including education systems, child care and management of natural resources. Waterfall says just as in the past, much of the constitution is focused on the role of consensus-building when it comes to making decisions. "Everybody would come together and talk about it until we came to a foundational understanding," she said of the past. "That process is embedded in our constitution." Also key, she said, is the importance of women in the community for building and reinforcing traditional laws. The Heiltsuk Nation's membership received voting packages on Jan. 6. Voting opened Thursday and it's set to continue until Feb. 20, says the statement issued Thursday. If it is approved by a majority of members, the statement says a ratification feast will be held in Bella Bella before the constitution takes effect.
