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Canada Returns A B.C. Island to The Saanich People
A B.C. Island Returned to The Saanich People Shows Land Back is Complicated
A 10-acre, seemingly untouched piece of land called Halibut Island, also known as SISȻENEM, is about to be the first piece of land given back to an Indigenous community through a land trust.
CBC 7 MAR 2023
UBC Prof. Tara Martin calls SISȻENEM a gem in the Salish Sea, one that received thousands of years of stewardship by the Saanich, or W̱SÁNEĆ, people.
"It was an eco-cultural landscape that had been tended for millennia…. Those forests were forest gardens [and] these meadows were gardens," she told Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild.
There are three options to give land back to First Nations, said Lorraine Land, a non-Indigenous, Toronto-based lawyer who specializes in Indigenous rights and environmental law.
The first method is for a First Nation to set up a corporation to hold title to the lands being returned. "A corporation is recognized in Canadian law as a legal person able to hold lands, but a First Nation isn't," she said.
The second method would be for First Nations to get land added to their reserve. But that process can take decades because it's bureaucratic and difficult, Land said.
The W̱SÁNEĆ leadership council took a different path. It set up a trust, which is easier to do under Canadian law when the lands have some conservation value.
While the Land Conservancy of BC is transferring title over to the W̱SÁNEĆ leadership council, the organization will still have an interest in SISȻENEM, be a partner on the title and keep the island open for research purposes.
Among the the W̱SÁNEĆ, there are some questions about why the Land Conservancy isn't simply giving SISȻENEM back to them with no strings attached. But others just want to get back there to start using the land for education and ceremony.
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