Land adjacent to Goldstream Provincial Park that was accidentally removed from First Nations ownership more than 50 years ago will be returned to the Saanich Tribes on Friday.
The four-hectare parcel on Mount Finlayson has been treated as Crown land since a “surveying error” in 1962 and, although never officially added to the park, has been used as an access to a popular trail up Mount Finlayson.
It was a long wrangle before government officials were persuaded to hand it back, even though the error was admitted soon after it happened, said Pauquachin Chief Bruce Underwood.
The claim was pursued because of people’s emotional attachment to the land, he said. “This was something that was passionately put in front of our leaders and we have taken it to the finish line. … As leaders of the community, we had to understand a different way of dealing with government and learn to bridge the gap in understanding.”
First Nations leaders have a mandate to protect the land — traditionally used to gather food and medicinal plants — for future generations, he said.
“This is one of the first times, through the specific claim process, that land has been given back to First Nations, so this has far-reaching implications,” Underwood said.
On Friday, at a ceremony in the Tsawout First Nation gymnasium, the parcel will be officially returned to the Saanich Tribes — Malahat, Pauquachin, Tseycum, Tsartlip and Tsawout First Nations — by provincial Aboriginal Relations Minister Ida Chong and federal representatives. It will eventually become part of Goldstream Indian Reserve.
Government officials would not comment Wednesday on the deal, which has not been formally announced.
It has not yet been decided whether there will be unrestricted public access, Underwood said.
“We want to be respectful to our neighbours … but I would like to educate the public,” he said. That could involve working with government to put up signs, describing the history.
Tsawout elder and treaty officer Eric Pelkey said no fences will be erected, but the Saanich people will again be able to harvest plants on their own land.
There is also a spiritual aspect to the land. According to elders, it is where the first Saanich man came down to Earth, Pelkey said.
“XALLS [the Creator] was looking for a place to bring the first Saanich man down from heaven and he chose Goldstream because everything he needed to live would be right there,” Pelkey said. “There was fish and plants and everything he would need to survive.”
Tsartlip elder Tom Sampson said First Nations families once used the Goldstream area for harvesting huckleberries and cranberries and for catching the fish that would sustain them through the year.
Although the return of the parcel is a good step, the entire Goldstream area was traditional land and, under the Douglas Treaties, should be returned, Sampson said.
“I think it’s because government has a guilty conscience that they’re giving us this piece back,” he said.
“They called [the faulty surveying] an accident. We call it stealing.”
