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magazine / apr08
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April 2008 issue |
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FEATURE
No reservations (page 4)
Not everyone has been so encouraging. Farmers in Delta
are fiercely protective of the municipality’s dwindling agricultural
lands and want to prevent possible development on the
property the Tsawwassen will assume as part of the treaty,
much of which falls on prime vegetable and berry farmland.
Farming associations criticized the transfer, as did most
Vancouver area municipal governments and several members
of the provincial legislature. “This treaty, in addressing old
wrongs, is writing into history, I believe, a new wrong,”
Delta North MLA Guy Gentner, a former Delta councillor,
told the B.C. Legislature. “The province’s willingness to
barter away farmland is the death knell for more to be lost.”
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The wisdom of the Ngai Tahu
As a negotiator for the New Zealand
government between 1995 and 1999,
I worked on the first comprehensive treaty
settlement in that country, the Ngai Tahu
Treaty, completed in 1998. Like the
Tsawwassen, the Ngai Tahu, a South Island
Maori tribe, made pragmatic decisions
about what they needed most. Apart from
vital cultural recognition and a fair settlement
of past wrongs, they wanted a
robust economic agreement, including
cash and land for commercial investment.
Rather than accept whatever land the
government offered, however, the Ngai
Tahu (pronounced nye-TUH-hoo) elected
to take a larger capital sum, $170 million
(N.Z.), and purchase new land. The New
Zealand government also returned
dozens of sacred and historic sites, many
of them to be managed by the Ngai Tahu
as public parks.
Perhaps most important, the treaty
included an apology from the Crown for
past wrongs.
There is nothing equivalent to an
Indian band in New Zealand, and the Ngai
Tahu’s leadership comprises a board and
trustee system, with its treaty assets held
by a corporation in which all members are
shareholders. A corporate structure doesn’t
necessarily lend itself well to a traditional
way of doing things, however, and
10 years on, there have been disputes
about leadership strategies and some
members complain they have no say in
decision making. In 2006, there was a
major reorganization of the management
of Ngai Tahu Holdings (NTH), the tribe’s
investment arm, and there has been a
high turnover of chief executives.
Nonetheless, theirs is a success story.
The Ngai Tahu invested their settlement
capital and now grant hundreds of thousands
of dollars annually in scholarships.
Personal savings for education or housing
are matched dollar for dollar. And with
numerous tourism locations and real
estate holdings, NTH operates several multi-million-dollar businesses. Above all,
the Ngai Tahu are living the vision outlined
in the treaty: “For us and our children
after us.”
K.G.
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Opposition to the agreement from other First Nations has
been equally emphatic. Numerous groups have asserted
that the Tsawwassen’s treaty lands lie within their own
traditional territories and should not be transferred until their
own rights to those lands have been addressed. The
Semiahmoo First Nation in nearby White Rock and an
alliance of Vancouver Island First Nations launched legal
proceedings in June 2007 in an attempt to halt further
progress on the treaty. Their case was rejected in the
B.C. Supreme Court in November 2007.
Closer to home, at Canoe Pass on the Fraser River, where
the Tsawwassen will have ownership of several parcels of land,
Raymond Wilson is at the forefront of a drive by the
Hwlitsum First Nation to gain its own land. Fearful that
there will be none left for his people, Wilson has fought the
Tsawwassen every step of the way during the past 14 years.
He, too, has so far been unsuccessful.
Nor is the opposition just local. First Nations from the
Fraser Valley that have begun their own treaty negotiations
have banded together with those on Vancouver Island in an
attempt to force governments to change what have, until
now, been non-negotiable mandates, such as the policy on
removing the tax exemption. A unified front, they say, is
essential to success; in agreeing to accept such policies, the
Tsawwassen First Nation has let them down.
Others outside the process are just as adamant.
“I believe strongly in the just reconciliation of the land
question,” says Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the
Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, a provincial organization advocating against current government-treaty
policy. “But I don’t believe this process does it.”
In addition to the external resistance, 30 Tsawwassen
residents actively opposed the deal. Some were reluctant
because of an inherent distrust of government, which has
a long history of marginalizing First Nations. Russell Williams,
Baird’s uncle by marriage, remembers Air Force practices
taking place in front of the reserve during the Second World
War. Once, machine-gun shells burst through the window
of a house. Williams also recalls a dummy bomb ripping
a hole in the home of Baird’s grandfather, Simon Joe;
thankfully, no one was home. “How do we get along with
the governments,” he asks, "when we’ve been so oppressed?"
Some feared losing their government overseers, on whom
they have come to depend. “We’ll be losing INAC’s responsibility
for us,” says Bertha Williams (no relation to Russell).
“Who will we turn to then?”
Bertha also raises concerns about losing the long-held tax
exemption when incomes are low to begin with. “There’s all
this pretty talk about revenue and development. but how is
that going to benefit us as individuals?” She considers the tax
exemption to be part of her identity. “It’s who we are now.
There’s no other place in the world where people have
a special status like this.”
| Comments on this article | Leave a comment | Tax Exeption does not, and has never, defined First Nation status in any way shape or form. Culture and ethnicity are neither reinforced nor proven by such a trivial and useless thing. While it is difficult for some to believe, it wasn't a hard decision to give up 'tax free status' and instead take back the right to determine independently who is an who is not Tsawwassen, develop lands apropriately and safely, create and establish governing policies... the list is too long for this space. To be out from under the Indian Act and be considered fully human is a long-held dream that is finally being realized.
Who is going to read this? I would like the Dubia's of the world to do so, so we can approach this from a global perspective as opposed to another version of urban sprawl. I have coined the term Greener Gateway to describe a healthy approach. Any takers?
This group reneging their tax rights is a strong step in the right direction. Like some writer wrote re. the resources on tribal lands: "they teach us how to dig them up and carry them out." This move is a step toward independence.
It is like an adolescent leaving home for the first time. It may be painful and they may stumble, but when they get it right, they will rock.
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