Latest news with #HeiltsukNation
CTV News
22-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
B.C. Coastal First Nations issue open letter to Carney opposing suggested pipeline
Chief Marilyn Slett speaks during a news conference in Vancouver, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
National Observer
21-07-2025
- Politics
- National Observer
Carney strides into Northern Gateway minefield
Prime Minister Mark Carney set off alarm bells across British Columbia when he told a journalist at the Calgary Stampede that a new bitumen pipeline to BC's north coast is 'highly, highly likely.' Nowhere have those bells been ringing more strongly than in the dozens of First Nations communities who spent a decade fighting the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal. 'Our position hasn't changed,' Marilyn Slett, chief of the Heiltsuk Nation and president of the nine-member Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative, told Canada's National Observer. 'An oil pipeline and tankers is something that we cannot support.' The proposal is perhaps the starkest example of a central tension stemming from Carney's signature legislation, Bill C-5 — that appropriate consultation with First Nations is incompatible with the time scales being put forth. That, in turn, sets up the question hanging over the whole country: What will Carney do if a project he strongly favours fails to win Indigenous support? 'Consent shouldn't be an option,' said Terry Teegee, chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations. Back in the Northern Gateway years (the pipeline was proposed in 2006 and cancelled in 2016), Teegee was chief of the eight-nation Carrier Sekani Tribal Group; the proposed pipeline route went straight through their territory in the centre of BC, and was opposed by all of them. 'Those First Nations haven't changed their mind either,' he said. None of the Indigenous leaders contacted for this article have heard anything about a new pipeline directly from the federal government, and the subject did not come up during Carney's meeting with First Nations from around the country in Gatineau last week. But a government source recently confirmed to Canada's National Observer that a Northern Gateway-style pipeline to BC's north coast is indeed likely to make the list of 'major projects' to be streamlined under Bill C-5. If history is any guide, it's hard to overstate the scale of opposition and public outrage such a decision would provoke in BC. Nine years after it ended, the Northern Gateway saga has faded from many Canadians' minds; a global pandemic and two Trump administrations have eclipsed it in our collective memory. But few projects in Canadian history have generated such intense blowback. Its blatant disregard of First Nations rights and protection of an iconic Canadian landscape united two of the most powerful protest blocs in the country; protests convulsed BC for years on end, generated endless terrible headlines, and consumed an enormous amount of the Harper government's time, energy and political capital. The Conservatives lost every one of the nine West Coast ridings they won in 2011. It also contributed significantly to the distrust of government among First Nations that Carney is reigniting today. Prime Minister Mark Carney set off alarm bells across British Columbia when he told a journalist at the Calgary Stampede that a new bitumen pipeline to BC's north coast is 'highly, highly likely.' Rewriting history Whether he realizes it or not, Carney is tiptoeing straight into the same political minefield Harper trudged through a decade ago. Many see his soft embrace of it as a concession to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, whose demands for such a pipeline have ramped up dramatically in recent months. 'The whole purpose of the exercise we're going through is to expand to new markets,' Smith told CBC on July 2, referring to Bill C-5. 'The best opportunity is in expanding to the West Coast.' In Smith's telling, Northern Gateway was well-received by Indigenous communities and the only reason it failed was that Justin Trudeau decided to cancel the project. 'There could have been a pathway to 'yes,' and he chose the opposite approach,' she said in that interview. According to her, 'Northern Gateway actually showed a pathway where you could have Indigenous ownership. I think there were 35 Indigenous leaders who were very enthusiastic about it. So I would hope we could enter into some kind of process where we would have a similarly positive outcome.' That's a dramatic rewriting of history. Enbridge did sign financial agreements with an undisclosed number of First Nations in return for their support of Northern Gateway, but the names of those nations were never publicly released. Meanwhile, more than 130 First Nations publicly opposed the project. Among them were the nine coastal First Nations represented by Chief Slett – it was their court challenge that led the federal court to overturn the project's approval. Justin Trudeau decided against appealing that decision, and formally cancelled the project instead. Reviving it today runs a powerful risk of reigniting the same opposition, both in the courts and on the streets. Even if Carney and Smith find a number of First Nations to support it, the inevitable opposition of a far greater number of First Nations would be political kryptonite for a government whose relationship with First Nations is already under huge strain. 'It's not going to be the path that they envision,' Slett said. Oil versus gas Phil Germuth is the mayor of Kitimat, the same terminus where Northern Gateway was originally proposed. He was a city councillor and staunch opponent of Northern Gateway 10 years ago; today, he's delighted by all the LNG traffic coming through Douglas Channel. Earlier this month, LNG Canada began its first shipment of liquefied natural gas out of Kitimat; several more LNG projects are coming online in the coming years. Germuth remains extremely wary of transporting bitumen through the same waters. 'They're two completely different projects when it comes to the potential environmental impacts,' he told Canada's National Observer. 'If you're proposing Northern Gateway the way it originally was, I think there would just be so much opposition.' By 2030, Slett expects to see 600 LNG tankers ply her territorial waters and those of her fellow coastal nations every year. She and others have made their peace with that — and think this sacrifice — not a small one, should be enough. 'British Columbia is doing their part in terms of national interest projects with these LNG projects,' she said. Plus, oil is far more dangerous to transport than natural gas, Slett pointed out. 'There is no technology that exists that could sufficiently clean up any oil spill in these deep waters and along the narrow rocky coastlines,' she said. 'We're not going to bear the risk of an oil spill in our waters.' While opposition to transporting bitumen along the north coast hasn't changed in the last 10 years, other things have. One of them is the creation of a huge new marine protected area known as the Great Bear Sea. This is one of the largest conservation projects of its kind on Earth, encompassing 10 million hectares off the north and central coast of British Columbia. Last year, the federal government gave $200 million to kickstart the initiative, which is led by 17 First Nations, including all the ones that defeated Northern Gateway in court 10 years ago. When Trudeau decided not to appeal that loss, he passed Bill C-48 banning oil tanker traffic from the region. Federal Conservatives, multiple Alberta premiers, and Enbridge have all been calling for that ban to be repealed ever since, as a precondition for reviving Northern Gateway. If that happens, it would almost certainly be a sign that a new pipeline battle is coming next. Transport Canada, under whose jurisdiction the tanker ban falls, did not reply to a request for comment on the future of C-48. Neither did the environment ministry. The question, then, is whether Carney appreciates the situation's flammability. According to BC AFN Chief Teegee, the prime minister promised First Nations chiefs in Gatineau that no projects would be approved without Indigenous consent. If he holds true to his word, he'll undoubtedly enrage Danielle Smith and the federal Conservatives. But now that Bill C-5 is law, they no longer have the power to kill the prime minister's signature legislation. The people who can are First Nations.
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- The Guardian
After 150 years, a prized box returns to an Indigenous nation in Canada: ‘I felt like royalty traveling with it'
When the plane took off from Vancouver's airport, bound north for the Great Bear Rainforest, Q̓íx̌itasu Elroy White felt giddy with excitement. The plane traced a route along the Pacific Ocean and British Columbia's coast mountains, still snow-capped in late May. Inside the cramped plane, White, who serves as an elected councillor and hereditary chief for the Heiltsuk nation, glanced often at the seat next to him and thought about his mission: bringing his travelling companion home for the first time in nearly 150 years. Hidden underneath a large grey flight bag and packaged carefully was an ancient cedar bentwood box. 'I felt like royalty, traveling with the box,' said White, who is trained as an archaeologist. 'And as I sat on the plane, it really hit me what I was doing on behalf of the nation: I was bringing home a belonging – not an object.' When he landed, a group of artists were waiting, eager to view first-hand an object they had only seen in books, online and – if they travelled far enough – in a museum or gallery. In late May, the prized box was honoured by the Heiltsuk in their big house during ceremonies to ratify their nation's new constitution. But the unlikely return of the box underscores the challenges facing Indigenous communities in a protracted battle to reclaim items pillaged from their lands and now displayed in museums and private collections. Bentwood boxes are crafted from a single piece of cedar wood that has been curved on three sides through steam and fastened shut on the fourth with wooden pegs. Perfected by coastal Indigenous communities over centuries, the boxes were both ceremonial and practical. The watertight containers were often used to store food and valuable goods and were invaluable on canoe voyages across sections of the Pacific. But before taking on its distinctive shape, each box begins as a strip of western red cedar wood, carefully removed from the trunk of a living giant in the woods. The technique, known as bark stripping, often leaves a large rectangular bark-strip scar visible centuries later. The oldest living culturally modified tree ever discovered in the province dates back to AD1186. 'Our ancestors removed planks and then gave thanks to the tree,' said White. 'They took nothing more than was needed.' The box that White had tenderly returned home was among the many that had taken unlikely journeys to lands that did not have the revered trees. Beginning in the late 1800s, federal 'Indian agents' and missionaries plundered coastal communities, often under the guise of conservation. The removal of items with deep cultural value coincided with Canada's ban on the potlatch, a gift-giving ceremony that had long underpinned relations between clans and neighbouring nations. Many of the items were sold under duress. Mortuary poles, masks and bentwood boxes were scattered all over the world, eagerly snapped up by museums and private collectors. Occasionally, a piece would surface at auction. In 2020, while searching for a piece of jewellery, Janet and Dave Deisley, a couple based in Salt Lake City, Utah, spotted a bentwood box for auction in Vancouver. The pair had spent years in Alaska, South America and British Columbia, purchasing contemporary pieces from Indigenous artists. They developed a particular love for Inuit stone carvings and prints, as well as Coast Salish masks. 'I was always interested in bentwood boxes, but never had bought one,' said Dave. The box was unique: its heavy lid was inlaid with shimmering snail shells. All the auction house could say was that the box was from the 1880s and designed by an artist from the Heiltsuk nation – a people renowned for their craftsmanship. And so the couple bought the box. But back home in Salt Lake City, the excitement around it soon faded. 'It just had this incredible beauty, but never really seemed to fit anywhere in our house. It never felt right and I couldn't figure out why,' Janet said. 'I felt bad for it. It was just sitting there on its own in this, you know, sort of formal living room in the desert.' Through personal contacts, the couple set out to do what they believed was right: return the box. But what seemed like a simple idea contained a multitude of logistical hurdles. 'There isn't just a number you call and it's not something that can be done in a week,' Janet said. 'The chief said if we could get it to Vancouver, to the Coastal First Nations office, they would find a way to get it up to the community in a respectful manner.' For more than a year it sat in the office in downtown Vancouver until the Heiltsuk community worked out a plan that involved White escorting it back to the town of Bella Bella. 'The existential question is: what's a historic red cedar box, that came to life in the BC coastal community over 100 years ago, doing in a modern house in the Utah desert?' saids Janet. 'There was really no satisfactory answer for that. There was never any thought that it should end up in a museum. It had to go home.' The returned box represents a broader effort by the Heiltsuk nation to repatriate more than 1,000 items at more than three dozen institutions around the world – and countless private collections. Over the past decade, the nation has developed a digital database to accompany an extensive list of objects and ancestral remains, first developed in the 1980s. White said he had noticed a dramatic shift in how museums handle repatriation efforts, with many eager to begin discussions over the lengthy and challenging process of returning items. First Nations communities often bear the financial burden of repatriation and a new report estimates it would cost nearly C$663m (£353m) over five years to the fund repatriation for all 204 First Nations in British Columbia. The community has successfully repatriated four items since 2022, including a chief's seat carved by the acclaimed Heiltsuk artist and chief Captain Richard Carpenter (Dúqvay̓ḷá Hawallis). The ornate seat, once behind glass in the Royal British Columbia Museum, now sits in the community's big house. 'Smoke, ashes and dust are going to land on the seat because it is no longer a museum piece. It was never meant to be,' said White. 'And the box is now in the chief's room as a reminder to us of a path that was long ago when these boxes were so plentiful.' But private collections represent a 'vast unknown' with little indication of how many items remain in homes.'There's a despair knowing that items created in the territory for the chiefs and their families are now owned by somebody they were never intended for,' he said. Numerous items from that era – including a similar bentwood box – remain up for sale on auction sites. White said the 'no-strings attached' gesture by Janet and Dave Deisley had inspired others to reach out to return items, including a pair of ornate paddles gifted to a missionary family in the late 1800s. 'More items will eventually come, but the Heiltsuk nation isn't rushing anything, because we don't have a museum and our culture centre is full,' said White, reflecting a broader concern of communities repatriating items. 'We need our own museum, but it can't be a museum like where these belongings came from. It has to be designed in a way that benefits our people first – not for outside tourists or researchers – Heiltsuk first,' he said. 'Our people were still going out and practising their food and cedar bark gathering, carrying out potlatches in their own villages,' White said. 'And this box represents that moment in time before the potlatch ban.' For nearly 150 years, any Heiltsuk artist wanting to experience the art and craftsmanship of their ancestors needed to travel outside the community. 'To realise that the descendants of these artists have never seen the pieces created by their ancestors – this is wrong,' said Janet. 'It's fair to say we would never purchase another historic piece like this again.' The Heiltsuk nation gave Janet and Dave a modern bentwood box as a thank-you gift. 'The young local artist knew immediately which one he wanted to give them,' said White. 'For years, his work has been inspired by Heiltsuk boxes that were in museums. But now there's one here for him to learn from.' At the end of May, after the box had been welcomed in dance, song and feasting, prominent artists gathered with community members to study it, assessing the subtle differences in style between coastal nations. Outside, rain poured down on to the forest and the mammoth cedar trees that have sustained the Heiltsuk for generations. 'There is probably still is a tree out there, standing in our forest, that has half its wood removed so that an artist could make this box,' said White. 'And so in more than one way, after such a long journey, it has returned home.'
Global News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Global News
B.C. reports offer ‘road map' for repatriation of Indigenous historical items
A pair of reports out of British Columbia are detailing the complex, expensive and under resourced process of repatriating Indigenous historical items or remains back to their homes. The studies, developed in partnership between the First Peoples' Cultural Council and K'yuu Enterprise Corporation, call for changes including the creation of a centralized body to facilitate the work, a repatriation accreditation program for museums and other institutions, and 'substantial' funding and support from the provincial and federal government. Gretchen Fox, an anthropologist and the council's acting heritage manager, said the growing interest in the moral and ethical requirement for repatriation shows resources are needed to set out steps that could be used in B.C. and in other provinces and territories. 'There was a need for a way forward, or a road map — what's involved in repatriation, what's the history of it,' she said. Story continues below advertisement 'To have a really good understanding and documentation of what's been lost, where these ancestors and belongings are held today, and what kind of work specifically is involved in locating them.' Researchers with the K'yuu Enterprise Corporation did a survey and found more than 2,500 B.C. First Nation human remains and upwards of 100,000 belongings are known to be held in 229 institutions — including museums and universities — around the world. Fox said the survey had only a 50 per cent response rate. 'So, we know that the numbers are much higher, and those numbers are just for ancestors and belongings that are associated with B.C. First Nations,' she said. 2:11 Heiltsuk Nation celebrates 'powerful, emotional' return of historic chief's seat The main report breaks down repatriation into a four-step process starting with planning and research, followed by repatriation itself and the long-term caretaking of the items or remains. Story continues below advertisement It says 60 per cent of B.C. First Nations surveyed have already spent more than $1 million on repatriation work to date. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'Since the Canadian government has yet to commit to dedicated repatriation legislation, policy and funding, many (B.C. First Nations) are reliant on grants and other mechanisms to support their repatriation work,' it says. The report says when applying for grant programs that aren't dedicated to repatriation, nations are forced to focus on strict funding criteria and narrow timelines rather than their own needs. In 2016, B.C. became the first province in Canada to offer a grant to help pay for repatriation. While the report calls that funding 'welcome,' it says the money has not kept pace with requests. It says repatriation in Canada is 'severely underfunded.' 'For decades, B.C. First Nations have funded this work through piecemeal grants and heavy reliance on volunteer labour,' it says. Fox said there are a range of costs, from paying personnel to the technology required to research where items are located or the cost to store them properly. 2:20 Totem's arrival on Nisga'a land reveals the full scope of the work ahead A companion report offers what Fox calls a 'really high level' cost estimate. Story continues below advertisement It suggests that if all 204 B.C. First Nations were funded over five years to participate in repatriation at various stages it would cost an estimated $663 million. Fox said the number is not a request for funding, but rather an attempt to test the model and 'show the monumental, significant, costs of this.' The report says repatriation is also an economic and social driver with benefits like health and healing, jobs and community development. 'It has spiritual and cultural impacts of reconnecting with belongings and carrying out responsibilities to ancestors and It's so meaningful, even if it's engaged at a slower pace, or on a smaller scale,' Fox said. She said having a First Nation-led centralized organizing body and programming to facilitate repatriation would be helpful to provide the opportunity to pool experience and resources. 'First Nations in B.C. are really leading the way in repatriation, and quite a few have quite a bit of expertise and experience around doing the work and also insights into the kinds of supports, whether it's legislation (or) policy,' she said. Inviting museums and other holding institutions would also be beneficial, Fox said. 2:17 Sacred totem pole to return home to Bella Coola In 2023, a totem pole that had been on display at the Royal B.C. Museum, was brought back to Bella Coola, located almost 1,000 kilometres northwest of Vancouver. Story continues below advertisement It was taken in 1913 and became part of the museum's collection. Representatives of the Nuxalk Nation said at the time that they had been trying to get the totem and other artifacts back since 2019. Also in 2023, a memorial totem pole belonging to members of the Nisga'a Nation was returned from the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, where it has been for nearly a century. Last year, the Heiltsuk Nation celebrated the return of a chief's seat that had been in the Royal BC Museum since 1911. Fox said an accreditation program for institutions that hold First Nations' remains and belongings could teach about repatriation and the practices and protocols needed. 'There's not a lot of formal training for folks who are doing the work, so it makes sense for those who are experts to have an arena, to share that,' she said. She said there is still work to be done, but over the last few decades more institutions are recognizing the 'moral and ethical imperative to make things right. That these belongings and ancestors were stolen or taken under duress from First Nations communities, and that the right thing to do is to facilitate their return.' 'At the same time, First Nations repatriation experts are training the next generations within their communities, and they're building relationships with institutions. And so we are seeing some significant movement and recognition that this is the right thing to do,' she said.
The Guardian
12-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Indigenous nation in Canada ratifies its first written constitution
After decades of colonial oppression, including the removal of children from their families, forced sterilisation and abuse in residential schools, the Heiltsuk Nation has ratified its first written constitution. Aimed at 'renewing and reclaiming ancestral laws', the document enshrines a framework in which power and decision-making is shared by hereditary leadership, the elected chief and council, and the nation's women's council
