Originally Broadcast on Cortes Community Radio, CKTZ, 89.5 FM
Grace Islet is a recognized centuries old First Nations burial ground on Salt Spring Island BC, that is zoned residential. In an attempt to satisfy both concerns, British Columbia’s Archaeology Branch decided to allow an Alberta businessman to build his waterfront vacation home on Grace Islet providing he put it on stilts that go over the grave sites.
Continue reading The Desecration of Grace Islet
The implications, for future economic activities on aboriginal lands, are enormous. The Supreme Court Recognizes Tsilhqot’in First Nation’s Title over 1,700 square kilometres of British Columbia.
The British Columbia government has just decided that the Penelakut Tribe’s ancestral burial cairns on Grace Islet, on Salt Spring Island, can be desecrated.
The Government of British Columbia and the Tla’amin Nation have signed the final agreement that precedes the signing of a treaty.
The Tla’amin occupied the northern part of the Sunshine Coast (see map above), practising their traditional lifestyle and governed by their own laws, for 2,000 years. There are presently 1,026 band members, most of which live on the reserve north of Powell River.
Originally published on Heartwood, Field Notes
Their plan is to net out of the equation sensitive ecosystems, riparian zones, areas with very thin soils, and groves of old growth—and do selective, ecosystem-based forestry on what remains of the land base.
Continue reading The Klahoose First Nation & Origins of Cortes Community Forest
