Canadian path to recognition not for Aussies, tribe warns

Indigenous Canadians have told Australians seeking to replicate the Canadian path to reconciliation to think twice.

Tsleil-Waututh delegates, from left, Nick George, Olivia George, Selin Beltran (front), Reuben George and James Sandover. Picture: Amos Aikman.

Youngsters from Canada’s Tsleil-Waututh Nation have some ­advice for Australians seeking to replicate the Canadian model of treaties and constitutionally- mandated indigenous rights as a means of reconciliation: think twice because there are costs.

The Tsleil-Waututh do not have a treaty, but some of their rights are constitutionally protected. They are using those rights to sue Canada’s government for failing to properly consult about expansion of a major oil pipeline.

A delegation from the community of about 500 people, whose ancestral lands cover much of the area occupied by Vancouver, visited Australia for the recent Garma indigenous ­festival.

Spokesman Reuben George supported the fight by Australian indigenous people to strengthen their rights.

“Canadian First ­Nations peoples are winning 90 per cent of our court battles against resource extraction,” Mr George said. “Industry can’t do anything in British Columbia now without talking to First Nations.”

But at the same time, he said, many Canadian indigenous people still lived in poverty, with poor health and education outcomes. More effective rights had not brought better relations with the Canadian government.

Selina Beltran, a Tsleil-Waututh woman, said: “Don’t use us as a model. The (Canadian) government treats us horribly.”

Mr George said his tribe had made financial gains by threatening to lock-up development projects by red tape. He said the Tsleil-Waututh had also successfully developed some of its own land and owned companies that also employed non-First Nations staff.

He said recent treaty negotiations in British Columbia had been costly and unproductive. Asked if he still wanted a treaty, Mr George said the Tsleil-Waututh would benefit only from a treaty that gave them full ­sovereignty.

He ­described the Tsleil-Waututh’s role as providing strong environmental oversight. “If we win everybody wins.”

Additional sovereign rights, he said, might be exercised to levy taxes on trade through Vancouver harbour.

Nick George and James Sandover, two Tsleil-Waututh men, said constitutional rights and treaties were fundamentally “legal weapons”, although Ms Beltran said there was more to it.

The delegation opposed all extractive industry that could not be done “sustainably”, but the young people were unclear about where else the materials that mining produced might come from.

“We think about how it’s going to help people we never meet, how it’s going to sustain ourselves. We’re looking to the future generations,” Ms Beltran said.

Reuben George said Tsleil-Waututh cultural and ceremonial practice had recovered as soon as the tribe started actively separating itself from the wider population. Once numbering about 15,000, the tribe had reduced to just 13 members before recovering to its current level.