Summary
My name is Walas ’Namugwis, David Mungo Knox.
I am a Hereditary Chief of the Kwagu’ł people.
Our people have been here a very long time. 14,500 years.
Our ancestors lived from these lands and waters before Canada and British Columbia existed. They looked after them, and they left us responsibilities.
We still carry those responsibilities today.
This is the place outsiders once called the Land of the Head Hunters.
They did not always understand us.
They did not understand our laws, our ceremonies, our families, our responsibilities or our relationship with the land.
But we knew who we were.
We still do.
Today governments are talking about critical minerals, mining, forestry, energy and other resource development.
In British Columbia, different ministries make decisions about mining, forests, energy and other resource industries. To government these may be separate files, permits, tenures and projects.
To us they are the same homeland, the same Treaty and the same responsibility.
Companies are looking at maps.
Investors are looking for opportunities.
Governments and companies are talking about projects, investment and certainty.
They see copper, gold, timber, energy and other resources.
We see our homeland.
Before anybody spends too much money or makes too many promises, they should understand where they are coming.
This is not empty land.
Our villages are here.
Our ancestors are here.
Our rivers are here.
Our salmon are here.
Our cedar and medicines are here.
Our hunting places are here.
Our burial places are here.
Our sacred places are here.
Some places may be places where we can talk about development.
Some places will not be.
Some sacred places you may never be allowed to enter.
That is not something money can change.
That is protocol.
That is responsibility.
That is respect.
Our community has already spoken about how our homeland should be looked after.
Our women, our Old People and our youth did not come together to make a Land Use Plan just so government and industry could ignore it.
They brought their knowledge.
They brought their memories.
They brought what they know about the rivers, the animals, the old places and the places that must be protected.
That plan came from our people.
It is not something to put on a shelf.
If you want to work in our homeland, you need to start by respecting what our people have already said.
We also have a Treaty with the Crown.
That Treaty was made in 1851.
It is still here.
So are we.
Our ancestors did not make that Treaty so governments could spend the next 175 years deciding for us what happens to the land.
The Treaty has to mean something.
It has to mean something when forests are cut.
It has to mean something when roads are built.
It has to mean something when energy projects are proposed.
It has to mean something when companies want minerals from underneath our homeland.
And it has to mean something before governments tell investors that these lands and resources are open for business.
For a long time, people have come into our territory, taken what they wanted and left our people to live with the consequences.
We are not going to keep doing things that way.
There is a proper way to come into someone else’s home.
You do not walk through the door and start deciding what belongs to you.
You knock.
You introduce yourself.
You sit down.
You listen.
You learn where you are.
That is how companies should come to Kwagu’ł.
Come to us early.
Sit with us.
Listen to our people.
Learn our history.
Learn our protocols.
Learn what places are important.
Learn what our people have already said about the land.
Then we can talk.
Do not spend millions of dollars first and come to us afterward expecting us to approve what you have already decided.
Do not make promises to shareholders about our homeland before you have spoken with us.
Do not tell investors there is certainty before you understand the people whose homeland you are investing in.
Do not mistake a meeting for agreement.
Do not mistake consultation for consent.
And do not mistake a government permit, tenure, licence, mineral claim or approval for permission from our people.
Money already spent does not create consent.
Capital already committed does not create consent.
A government decision does not create a relationship with Kwagu’ł.
That relationship has to be built.
Maya’x̱ala means respect.
Respect is not just something you say.
You show it.
Sometimes respect means listening.
Sometimes it means changing your plans.
Sometimes it means waiting.
And sometimes it means accepting that the answer is no.
We are not saying that there can never be development in our homeland.
There may be opportunities where our people see a benefit and where the land can support it.
There may be good companies that are willing to build a proper relationship with us.
But development cannot continue to mean everybody else decides first and Kwagu’ł deals with the damage afterward.
Investors need to understand that too.
If you are thinking about putting your money into a project in our homeland, ask some basic questions.
Has the company actually sat with Kwagu’ł?
Have they listened to our people?
Do they understand our Treaty?
Have they looked at our Land Use Plan?
Do they understand our laws and protocols?
Do they know where the sacred places are?
Have they spoken with our Guardians, our Elders and our leadership?
Do they know whether our people have agreed?
If they cannot answer those questions, then they do not know enough about where they are investing.
Governments also need to understand something.
You cannot create certainty by giving away rights to land that is already someone’s homeland.
You cannot promise investors certainty while our Treaty remains unresolved on the ground.
You cannot create certainty by issuing permits and tenures while the underlying relationship remains unsettled.
And you cannot keep calling something reconciliation while ignoring what our people have already told you.
We want a better way.
We want relationships built before decisions are made.
We want the Douglas Treaty honoured.
We want our people involved before governments and companies make plans for our homeland.
We want our laws, our protocols and our Land Use Plan respected.
We want companies and investors to understand that some places are not for sale.
Some places are not for development.
Some places are not theirs to enter.
And we want our children and grandchildren to inherit a homeland that is still alive.
Our door is open.
But there is a proper way to enter.
And there are some doors that are not yours to open.
Come and sit with us before you come for the land.
Gilakas’la.
Walas ’Namugwis
Hereditary Chief David Mungo Knox
Kwagu’ł