Sliammon and Ecotrust Canada Partnership Deemed a Good Fit
Sliammon First Nation first established its Crown Land Referrals Department as an arm of its treaty research office. The completion of a Traditional Use Study(TUS) and establishment of a TUS database by the Sliammon Treaty Society laid the necessary groundwork for Sliammon involvement in the Crown Land Referrals process. Maynard Harry, Manager of the Sliammon Crown Lands Referrals and Resources Department (SCLRRD), recognized that "with the TUS complete and the GIS department established we recognized that this information needed to be employed." The TUS database is an integral element of Sliammon’s participation in the Crown Land Referrals process, as it provides Maynard with a good baseline of information required to meaningfully respond to a referral.
The department broke away from the treaty umbrella in late 1999 when Sliammon leaders in the area of Crown Land Referrals identified referrals as a Nation issue to be dealt with by Band administration. While there is some overlap between the Treaty Society’s goals in hammering out interim measures agreements and the SCLRRD role in securing meaningful involvement in land and resource decision making, Harry asserts that: "This is really a Nation issue. The Treaty Society’s role is to negotiate a treaty and work out the details of that treaty. This is a rights issue and a rights issue is a Nation issue."
The Delgamuukw decision in December of 1997 was heralded as a great victory for First Nations across British Columbia in the area of rights and title. The message from the highest court in Canada was clear: Aboriginal title has not been extinguished, and the reconciliation of Aboriginal title with crown title is to be worked out through negotiation not litigation.
In the wake of the decision, many Delgamuukw workshops were held to discuss the legally expanded definition of Aboriginal rights and title as well as to strategize future approaches in dealings with all levels of government. The Delgamuukw decision triggered the province’s legal duty to consult with First Nations on land and resource developments which occurred on First Nations traditional territories. Attending these workshops, Maynard Harry noticed a persistent complaint, that is, in the wake of Delgamuukw band offices were being flooded by land and resource referrals, and, that many nations lacked the infrastructure and capacity to deal with these referrals. Recognizing that Sliammon already had an effective system in place to deal with referrals Maynard conceptualized a Crown Land Referrals Workshop which would bring nations together to discuss this issue.
"I saw a lot of people reinventing the wheel at these workshops," said Harry. "There was a real need to streamline the process, and for a venue for First Nations to network with each other about the issues facing us in the Crown Land Referrals Process." And so a partnership was born, Sliammon First Nation teamed up with Ecotrust Canada to deliver a two-day workshop on the referrals issue in Sliammon territory. Maynard had a vision for the workshop: To network with other nations about their involvement in the referrals project, and to produce some tangible results, be it another workshop, or an effective information sharing mechanism.
David Carruthers, Director of Information Services for Ecotrust Canada, saw the workshop as fitting the mandate of the Aboriginal Mapping Network. The AMN was established to facilitate discussion of common concerns facing First Nations in mapping, GIS, and information management. Carruthers states: "We saw the referrals issue bubbling to the surface all over the province yet there wasn’t a forum for sharing First Nations experiences in dealing with these external pressures. We saw a role for the AMN to address the collective concerns." The workshop was initially conceptualized to be an intimate gathering of First Nations Crown Land Referrals practitioners, a venue to open a dialogue addressing common concerns. Eventually the workshop grew to include lawyers, consultants, and technical experts. The first day of the workshop included a series of presentations by lawyers, consultants and technical experts, and the second day was reserved for a discussion between the practitioners themselves.
An outcome of the strategizing session on the second day of the workshop was a list of action items. The idea for a Crown Land Referrals Toolbox was among those action items tabled. It was agreed that Ecotrust Canada and Sliammon would continue their partnership to tackle this initiative.