By David P Ball, IndigiNews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The shoreline at Tl’uqtinus village — once the annual home to more than a thousand people during salmon season — is today a tangle of blackberry bushes and shipping terminals in what is today ‘Richmond, B.C.’
The riverside village of Tl’uqtinus — once the annual home to more than a thousand people during salmon season — is today a sprawl of retail warehouses, mostly unused municipal lots, a Coca-Cola plant, and a fuel facility for the nearby Vancouver International Airport.
Less than 15 kilometres up the “Fraser River” from the Salish Sea, the former fishing village’s once-busy shores are today host to shipping terminals and a tangle of thorny and invasive blackberry bushes.
Last week, Tl’uqtinus village sparked an even thornier public debate over Indigenous people’s right to land — and settlers’ private property — across the province.
The B.C. Supreme Court, after a record-length trial, declared the Quw’utsun (Cowichan) Nation holds title to the 7.5-square-kilometre village site and the right to fish near it — a century-and-a-half after the province sold it to settlers.
Continue reading With court win, Quw’utsun Nation sees a ‘spiritual homecoming’ after 150 years
