mean spirited

On August 23, 2023 the Lil’wat Nation in Mt. Currie (north of Whistler) published a letter in conjunction with the N’Quatqua First Nation, titled: Pipi7iyekw - Joffre Lakes Park - Harvest Celebration for Lil'wat Nation and N'Quatqua First Nation.

That statement announces the closure of Joffre Lakes Provincial Park until Truth and Reconciliation Day, September 30. In explanation, several goals have been set out:
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• access for berry picking, food sustenance, and other traditional uses
• opportunities for Lil’wat Nation and N’Quatqua First Nation ceremony
• educating park users on respectful behavior when ceremonies occur

The Lil’wat Nation Political Chief, Dean Nelson, signed the August 23rd proclamation. He has a LinkedIn profile with the self-description: I would summarize myself as a person that continues to evolve as a human being, treating everyone equally … 
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​Equal treatment doesn’t seem to be at play, however, when non-indigenous are excluded from park access so that a comparatively small number of status card locals can have it for themselves. It’s funny that one of the goals involves educating those prohibited park users – will this be done over social media?

Are harvesting, ceremony and education the real motivators for this (illegal) closure? No, the actual reason is also disclosed in the Lil’wat letter:

The Lil’wat Nation asserts unextinguished title to its traditional territory, sovereignty over its traditional territory, and a right to self-determination.

The Lil’wat are not strangers to physical protest and once shut-down Highway 99 for months to exert political pressure under the guise of environmental stewardship. Here is a disturbing video of what happened in 1990 when the RCMP finally broke up the blockade.

Are the Lil’wat treated badly? They still have the right to pick, hunt and fish without licence over their traditional territory, including Joffre Lakes. They also receive significant funding that their distant ancestors didn’t have.

Their population of about 1,500 is currently supported with $40 million in annual revenues (more than double from 10 years ago), primarily from government grants funded by non-Lil’wat Canadians. Roughly 10% of that goes to social services that a municipality doesn’t provide to its residents. Yet by comparison the nearby village of Pemberton has twice the population and looks after itself on about of one-third of Lil’wat’s (90%) annual revenue, primarily from taxation of their own Pemberton residents. Pemberton has an Accumulated Surplus (for future needs) of about $35 million, while Lil’wat has around $85 million.

Do the Lil’wat really need exclusive use of Joffre Lakes, when they so choose, for harvesting and ceremony? If so then why did the BC government establish an area for such purposes only a few years ago, right next door to that Provincial Park?

The recently created Indigenous Conservancy called Pipi7iyekw is outlined in red. Joffre Lakes Provincial Park is in the lower left map corner.

At the time the Lil’wat seemed pleased, as indicated in a January 2020 BC News Release:

“Since time immemorial, the people of the Lil’wat Nation have depended on Pipi7iyekw for food, medicine, resources, teaching and to practice our culture, traditions and spirituality”, said Political Chief Dean Nelson, Lil‘wat Nation. “Many people have used this area over the years and continue to. Our late Elder Morgan Wells would regularly gather plants here, so much so that it became a place known as Morgan’s Garden.”

A pre-colonial trip to Morgan’s Garden would have involved a difficult half-day’s journey from the Lil’wat village area, more than 20 kilometres away and up 1,000 metres in elevation. Now, by car via the paved highway that was being protested in 1990, its about 20 minutes.

Joffre Lakes is better suited for cultural visits than the Pipi7iyekw Conservancy, which doesn’t have a nice parking lot or a maintained trail to drag the successful hunt downhill … and the outhouses are a bonus. The serenity of the lakes themselves also enhances that spirituality thing, which First Nations have but the rest of the world apparently lacks.

Those now-displaced outsiders who had hoped to connect with nature at Joffre can just go sweat the Grouse Grind and then head back to their profane, secondary, existence.