{"id":87466,"date":"2024-07-04T10:47:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T10:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/04\/on-small-islands-off-canadas-coast-a-big-shift-in-power\/"},"modified":"2024-07-04T10:47:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T10:47:09","slug":"on-small-islands-off-canadas-coast-a-big-shift-in-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/04\/on-small-islands-off-canadas-coast-a-big-shift-in-power\/","title":{"rendered":"On Small Islands Off Canada\u2019s Coast, a Big Shift in Power"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/07\/01\/multimedia\/00canada-haida-still2-zkvw\/00canada-haida-still2-zkvw-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"On Small Islands Off Canada\u2019s Coast, a Big Shift in Power\" title=\"On Small Islands Off Canada\u2019s Coast, a Big Shift in Power\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Raven, the story goes, alighted on the beach and heard sounds coming from a giant clamshell. He found creatures cowering inside but, ever the trickster, he cajoled them out into the world. Liberated, they became the first people of the islands of Haida Gwaii.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Haida people have lived for thousands of years on Haida Gwaii, a remote archipelago in the Pacific Ocean off Canada\u2019s western coast, just south of Alaska.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nearly wiped out by smallpox after the arrival of Europeans, the Haida clung to their land \u2014 so rich in wildlife it is sometimes called Canada\u2019s Gal\u00e1pagos, coveted by loggers for its old-growth forests of giant cedars and spruce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For decades, despite their geographic isolation, the Haida\u2019s unwavering fight to regain control over their land drew outsize attention in Canada, raising questions about the country\u2019s long unacknowledged, brutal colonial history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Haida opposed clear-cut logging, building ties with environmentalists. They forged alliances with non-Haida communities at home and found common cause with other Indigenous groups across the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They sued British Columbia for title to their land in 2002, and supported their claims of ancient ties to the archipelago with a museum that showcased their art, artifacts and foundation myths, like the story of the Raven.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their methodical and painstaking quest came to fruition in May when the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/news.gov.bc.ca\/releases\/2024IRR0027-000768#:~:text=The%20legislation%20that%20recognizes%20the,its%20kind%20in%20Canadian%20history.\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">government of British Columbia<\/a> passed a law \u2014 the first of its kind in Canada \u2014 recognizing the Haida\u2019s aboriginal title throughout Haida Gwaii. No provincial or federal government in Canada had ever willingly recognized an Indigenous people\u2019s title to their land.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the next few years, the provincial government\u2019s authority over the land and resources is expected to be handed over to the Council of the Haida Nation, the Haida people\u2019s government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOn our side, we knew exactly what we wanted, who we were and why we were doing what we did,\u201d said Frank Collison, 89, a hereditary chief who recalled facing unresponsive provincial and federal governments for decades. \u201cThey just weren\u2019t interesting in doing anything and quite satisfied to keep us under their thumb.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">British Columbia\u2019s premier, David Eby, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/news.gov.bc.ca\/releases\/2024PREM0020-000560\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> title recognition meant the province was \u201cmoving beyond a place where the Haida Nation\u2019s rights were denied to a place where they are recognized and upheld.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Exactly how power shifts to the Haida still needs to be negotiated with British Columbia even as the province continues to provide services like health care and maintain infrastructure like highways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some legal experts say the provincial law leaves some critical issues unclear, including the impact of aboriginal title on private land owned by non-Haida people. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Others question whether the province can recognize aboriginal title \u2014 an Indigenous group&#8217;s inherent right to land it occupied and used before colonization \u2014 without the federal government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Haida leaders say they are optimistic that they will reach an agreement with the federal government, which has also been moving toward recognition of aboriginal title.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, on Haida Gwaii, with a population of 5,000 divided evenly between Haida and non-Haida, the development is seen as a watershed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Indigenous community spoke of colonial liberation and of reclaiming its natural resources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Among the non-Haida \u2014 referred to as \u201csettlers\u201d on the archipelago \u2014 many expressed support for the change, though some said they feared a future dominated by the Haida.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Court decisions over the years had indicated that the Haida would eventually win their claim. So British Columbia\u2019s government, led by the left-leaning New Democratic Party, decided instead to negotiate an agreement that led to the legislation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt showed a basic amount of respect, which was welcome,\u201d said Jason Alsop, the president of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.haidanation.ca\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Council of the Haida Nation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Alsop spoke from the council\u2019s headquarters overlooking Skidegate, a village on the archipelago\u2019s main island where smallpox survivors gathered in the 19th century.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Benefiting from an usually rich land and sea, the Haida had developed a prosperous society as traders, seafarers, artists and owners of enslaved people from their wars with other Indigenous groups. Haida Gwaii means Islands of the People in the Haida language.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Diseases introduced by Europeans decimated their <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/parks.canada.ca\/pn-np\/bc\/gwaiihaanas\/culture\/apres-post\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">population<\/a> of 20,000 to 600 by the late 1800s. In the 20th century, the Haida were further marginalized because of Canadian government policies and wide-scale logging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was in the 1970s that the Haida, along with some other Indigenous groups in Canada, started reaffirming themselves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe began putting ourselves back together,\u201d said Nika Collison, executive director of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/haidagwaiimuseum.ca\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Haida Gwaii Museum<\/a> in Skidegate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Leaders established the Council of the Haida Nation, an elected body that spoke on the community\u2019s behalf in negotiations with the provincial and federal governments. They built the museum, which shored up their claim to aboriginal title by not only exhibiting their culture but also by repatriating human remains and art objects from museums across the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They revived traditional knowledge that had been nearly lost. For the first time in 75 years, they built a canoe from a cedar tree, \u201cback-engineering\u201d surviving ones, recalled <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/guujaaw.info\/bio\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Guujaaw<\/a>, a former council president who goes by his Haida name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They also carved totem poles out of cedars and raised them for the first time in decades. In Skidegate, they turned to a matriarch who, in a matrilineal society, was responsible for safeguarding cultural knowledge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cShe was the only one who remembered how to raise a totem pole,\u201d said Diane Brown, 76, also a matriarch who is able to recite the foundation story in the Haida language.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Leaders framed their campaign as part of global independence and environmental movements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Guujaaw said that they had<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>exchanged strategies with Indigenous groups in the Amazon, New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Myanmar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Guujaaw also secured unlikely allies like Dale Lore, a former mayor of Port Clements, a logging village north of Skidegate. It took 14 years for Mr. Lore to change from being a fervent defender of logging to being an opponent and a supporter of Haida autonomy, he said, explaining that Guujaaw had contributed to the transformation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe Haida don\u2019t try to win the fight in one fell swoop,\u201d he said. \u201cThey take one bite at a time, swallow it, digest it and go back for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 1995, Mr. Lore, who specialized in carving logging roads through forests, stumbled upon lichen and moss-covered canoes on the forest floor \u2014 carved out of giant cedars but abandoned by Haida who died of smallpox in the 19th century.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt made me sick to my stomach,\u201d Mr. Lore said, pointing to one such canoe on a recent visit to the forest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After becoming mayor of Port Clements, Mr. Lore signed a protocol in 2004 with the Council of the Haida Nation recognizing both Haida title and private land in the village.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Not everyone, though, was happy with the change in the balance of power. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Randy and Gloria O\u2019Brien own one of the biggest independent logging companies on Haida Gwaii, a firm that has also long had a provincial contract to service the region\u2019s highways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the years, as Haida leaders and environmentalists waged battle against clear-cutting, the overall supply of timber has decreased and hurt their business, the O\u2019Briens said. They had been forced three years ago, they said, to log cedars from half of a 320-acre property they had planned to pass on to their children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As power began shifting toward the Haida, the O\u2019Briens said that elected officials had grown indifferent to their complaints.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey won\u2019t return phone calls, and Victoria, we can\u2019t even get in there to see anybody,\u201d said Ms. O\u2019Brien, 73, referring to the provincial capital. The couple said they feared for their company\u2019s future after doing business on Haida Gwaii since the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen we first came here, we met a lot of Natives and they became our friends,\u201d said Mr. O\u2019Brien, 76. \u201cWe partied with them, went fishing, went hunting, everything.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBut all of a sudden, now they\u2019re \u2014 \u201d he said, with a laugh. \u201cThey\u2019re going to be our overlords.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Alsop, the council president, said the Haida wanted to move away from \u201ca volume-based model\u201d of logging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Christian White, 62, a well-known Haida artist, said that for years he had watched barges leave Haida Gwaii with loads of cedar logs \u2014 even as the Haida themselves were limited by forestry rules in acquiring trees central to their culture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In his studio, where one of his sculptures depicted people coming out of the clamshell upon which sat the Raven, Mr. White, said, \u201cWe are a sharing people, but the others, they\u2019ve gotten more than their fair share for way too long.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/04\/world\/canada\/canada-indigenous-rights-haida.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Raven, the story goes, alighted on the beach and heard sounds coming from a giant clamshell. He found creatures cowering inside but, ever the trickster, he cajoled them out into the world. Liberated, they became the first people of the islands of Haida Gwaii. The Haida people have lived for thousands of years on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/07\/01\/multimedia\/00canada-haida-still2-zkvw\/00canada-haida-still2-zkvw-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[995,6379,22155,9408,2974,5516,4602],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87468,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87466\/revisions\/87468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}