The Spirit of Haida Gwaii Last Spring, the Haida Launched a Supreme Court Case Claiming Title to the Queen Charlotte Islands
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The spirit of Haida Gwaii Last spring, the Haida launched a Supreme Court case claiming title to the Queen Charlotte Islands. Then something interesting happened: the local loggers took their side. Chris Tenove and Brooke McDonald report on an emerging partnership that has the potential to reshape aboriginal politics in British Columbia and beyond. photographs by brooke mcdonald ast june, a gathering was held at the aboriginals and the bureaucrats who work with them. Not so deceptively named Small Hall, a community building in the run-up to the referendum. On the airwaves and in lec- in the tiny coastal village of Skidegate. The island deli- ture halls, aboriginal people, along with politicians and aver- cacy of herring roe and sea kelp, or k’aaw, was set age British Columbians, were given a chance to say what it is out along with hundreds of pounds of Chinook they really wanted. Lsalmon, as at a traditional Haida potlatch. By early afternoon One word was being repeated over and over again by First the cedar hall was loud with drumbeats and chatter as more Nations leaders: reconciliation. The word has a specific legal than 300 guests arrived. meaning; the landmark 1997 Supreme Court of Canada deci- Potlatches and communal barbecues are not rare on the sion, Delgamuukw, told the B.C. government and aboriginal Queen Charlotte Islands, but this congregation was unique, groups that they had to negotiate to “reconcile” Crown title and crafted as a message. Half of the attendees were Haida, and aboriginal title over land. But more often, people were re- and the other half were local loggers, many of them employees ferring to something bigger than law and politics, to the heal- of the American multinational Weyerhaeuser. The loggers had ing of old wounds, to repentance and forgiveness. For both shut down the on-island logging industry for the day, their definitions, native leaders had a consistent message: this refer- trucks and equipment left idle in the forest. endum isn’t going to help. Dale Lore, a local logger, helped organize the event as a When it came time to cast their vote, nearly two-thirds of pageant of support for the Haida’s legal battle for title over eligible voters boycotted the process or stayed away out of in- Haida Gwaii. If it’s successful, the Haida would gain a large difference and confusion. Thousands spoiled their ballots or measure of control over the land and coastal waters, including mailed them to aboriginal groups for mass burnings. Still, the control of resources. For years, the logging industry had vast majority of returned ballots were in favour of the eight fought the attempts of Haida and environmentalists to limit principles, which are now legally binding. Whether they will the harvest of the islands’ forests. This group of loggers had reshape negotiations is debatable, however, since the princi- broken rank; they believe that they would be better off with ples either echo those of the previous government or over- the Haida in charge of the islands, and not the provincial gov- reach provincial jurisdiction. In a cbc interview, Norman ernment or big logging. Ruff, a political commentator from the University of Victo- Lore claims that companies like Weyerhaeuser aren’t inter- ria, dismissed the whole referendum as “sound and fury, sig- ested in sustaining the forests or the local community. “They nifying nothing.” use us up, spit us out, and go to the next place without a The political theatre that swept the province didn’t alter the thought,” he says, and as far as he can tell, they do so with the growing partnership on the Queen Charlotte Islands. And blessing of the B.C. government. there is the distinct possibility that the Haida’s legal battle for the islands could more significantly affect the treaty-making while this partnership was germinating up process—and the lives of aboriginals in B.C.—than Gordon north, aboriginals in the rest of the province felt as if their fellow Campbell’s referendum. What’s more, the new partnerships British Columbians were turning against them. The Liberal on Haida Gwaii, symbolized by that afternoon gathering in government under Gordon Campbell had just launched a Skidegate’s Small Hall, might provide a real-life example of provincial referendum to determine the direction that negotia- what reconciliation between Canada’s aboriginals and non- tions with First Nations would take. Treaty negotiations are a aboriginals actually looks like. big deal in B.C., where their outcome could rewrite the political and economic landscape of the province. Unlike the rest of the archipelago of haida gwaii, “islands of the Canada, almost none of the B.C. First Nations have treaty agree- people,” is nestled under the Alaskan panhandle and separated ments to define their land, their powers of governance, or their from the British Columbian mainland by treacherous waters access to resources. A new framework for negotiations was insti- and high winds. The first recorded contact with European ex- tuted in 1992, but has so far failed to produce a single agree- plorers was in 1774. In 1787 Captain George Dixon came to the ment. The stalled treaty process hangs on the horizon like a islands to trade sea otter furs, and renamed them after his thundercloud, with business leaders glancing nervously about boat, the hms Queen Charlotte. and native bands wondering when, and how much, rain will fall. Even today the place feels remote, and wild. Tall, gnarled The referendum asked British Columbians to vote on eight and wind-sculpted trees line the coasts. Rough-edged black principles to guide negotiations, from broad statements like rock tumbles in ridges through the stormy surf. Eagles aren’t “Parks and protected areas should be maintained for the use resigned to treetops, but brazenly perch on beaches and and benefit of all British Columbians,” to the more con- promontories, their shrieks of indignation and ownership tentious “Aboriginal self-government should have the charac- splitting the air. teristics of local government, with powers delegated from Evolution can experiment more freely on islands. In a Canada and British Columbia.” Polling guru Angus Reid de- unique ecosystem, isolated from the teeming hordes of the scribed the referendum as “one of the most amateurish, one- mainland, species that don’t exist anywhere else can evolve and sided attempts to gauge the public will that I have seen in my professional career.” To the credit of Gordon Campbell’s government, the refer- Giindajin Haawasti Guujaaw is the elected president endum got people talking. Despite the profound impact that of the Haida Nation. “Basically we’re on the very western edge treaties could have on all British Columbians—from payouts of colonialism in Canada,” he says. “We were the last ones colonized in the billions of dollars to changes in the management of and so that whole effort is only about 100 years old here compared large swathes of the province—debate is mostly limited to to the East Coast, where it’s about 500 years old.” 30 THIS january/february2003 thrive. An exceptionally large number of endemic species are lands. Instead, the B.C. government had gone ahead and found on the islands, like the Kermode bear or the tiny saw- granted Weyerhaeuser a license to log 1.2 million cubic metres whet owl. You also get biological aberrations, like the famous of timber a year. The B.C. Court of Appeals listened to the giant golden spruce. Three hundred years old and more than Haida argument, and found in their favour. 50 metres tall, its existence defied science. Its yellow needles “The Crown had gone on as if there is no such thing as should have been intolerant to sunlight, the very thing it re- aboriginal title,”says Guujaaw. “We proved they can’t do that.” quired to live and grow. There wasn’t another tree like it in the On the back of this victory, the Haida launched their case world before it met its untimely end—struck down one night for legal title over the islands in March 2002. Perhaps no B.C. in 1997 by a misguided environmental extremist. First Nation has as strong a claim as the Haida. Not only is The Haida culture itself—with its ornate totem poles and there proof of thousands of years of residence on the islands, rich oral literature—evolved over thousands of years on the is- there are no competing claims by other aboriginal groups. “We lands. It nearly became extinct at the end of the 19th century could be the first ones holding aboriginal title,” says Guujaaw, when settlers brought the smallpox virus. The epidemic cut although he admits the case will likely spend years before the the local population from around 9,000 down to 588 by 1911. courts. Even so, he believes that their victory in the first legal The Haida now number about 2,000, roughly one-third of skirmish is significant. “The legal precedent we’ve contributed the island’s inhabitants. to, in shaping aboriginal law, will affect everyone else,”he says. “Basically we’re on the very western edge of colonialism in It might also affect corporate boardrooms. The B.C. Court Canada,” says Giindajin Haawasti Guujaaw, the elected presi- of Appeals stated that the B.C. government and Weyerhaeuser dent of the Haida Nation. “We were the last ones colonized had a fiduciary duty toward the First Nations—and that the and so that whole effort is only about 100 years old here com- company had a duty to consult the Haida, even before their pared to the East Coast, where it’s about 500 years old.