00:00:00:17 – 00:00:07:05

Singing (Tla-o-qui-aht Master Carver and Historian Joseph Tutakwisnapšiƛ Martin, Board Director, IISAAK OLAM Foundation)

Whoa whoa whoa oh ho ya.

00:00:07:05 – 00:00:08:24

(Eli Enns, Tla-o-qui-aht Nation Citizen, Co-Founder and CEO, IISAAK OLAM Foundation)

čukʷaa haʔuk! 

00:00:08:24 – 00:00:23:08

Whoa whoa ho ya ha. 

(Drumming)

00:00:23:08 – 00:00:47:00

(Eli Enns, Tla-o-qui-aht Nation Citizen, Co-Founder and CEO, IISAAK OLAM Foundation)

We’ve been hearing a lot in the media recently about sovereignty and, you know, Donald Trump’s reference to the 49th parallel as the geopolitical boundary between Canada and the United States. So that’s why I wanna like, kind of lead up to like, a brief history of how we arrived, here today. And obviously, there’s a tension, right?

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There’s a tension between Indigenous Nation boundaries, which follow the natural contours of the Earth, not just here in North America, but around the world. 

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Elders – the Elder societies of the world organize themselves based on topographical features, hydrological features, like rivers, lakes, oceans, mountain valleys. You know, there were natural, topographical, sort of geophysical divides that human beings naturally organized themselves around.

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And, of late, in recent centuries, there’s been an imposition of a new nation-state system around the world, referred to in international political science as the Westphalian state system.

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The New Kingdom walls are lines on maps like the 49th parallel. You know, if you look around, if you look at a snapshot of the current state of the evolution of geopolitics in the world, you’ll see these nation-state boundaries on maps. 

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And these are the New Kingdom walls. 

So, theoretically within these lines on the map, the nation-state government has final say over what happens to their domestic population. This is the basic premise – the basic concept of sovereignty. I have sovereign final say over what happens within my kingdom walls, within the lines on the map, here.

00:02:35:04 – 00:02:51:23

To use an example of how this concept of Leviathan plays out in modern times. In a Canadian context, every citizen of Canada is born into and enlisted into a social contract at birth.

You know, the narrative once upon a time, at least superficially, was how do we make Canada a more fair and just society? Now, in the 1970s, there are, some things happened in my own research and, like I said, learning from wiser people than myself. There was a shift in the way that we spoke about the core premise of what makes a society.

00:03:22:01 – 00:03:40:16

It used to be this, this bigger notion, this greater notion. And the 1970s, there started to be a shift in replacing the sovereign Leviathan with the economy. 

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And, rather than thinking of economy as the wise and prudent management of the home, as a relationship between human society and the environment, the word ‘economy’ became manipulated and augmented to become a phenomenon.

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The health of the economy. Peter – he highlighted in the mainstream media, in the news, people are talking about the health of the economy, or India is an emerging economy…

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…or China has become a super, you know, economy, or whatever.

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And so given that, the notion of economic certainty began to gain prevalence. And so as these, geopolitics have evolved over time, there was a shift – 

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I believe it was somewhat linked to the decoupling of the gold standard from the American dollar. The dollar, the monetary system used to be grounded in gold. And that was decoupled. And, it’s kind of gone off the rails, quite a bit since. 

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And, along with that, became a shift towards GDP, gross domestic product, and the measuring of ‘the economy’ as, you know, as the main responsibility of the government of any given nation-state.

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And so how this affects Indigenous Peoples in Canada and how IPCAs can be a tool to help address some of the injustices, is by looking at the logic that Stephen Harper used during his administration to justify the use of the Canadian Secret Intelligence Agency, to target environmentalists and Indigenous Peoples who were opposed to large industrial fossil fuel development projects…

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 …and transmission lines, transportation corridors, including pipelines.

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And essentially, Stephen Harper argued that Canada’s national energy program is part and parcel of Canada’s national security. 

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Therefore, if you are against our energy program, whether you be a domestic citizen or a foreign influence, like a foreign agitator, if you’re against Canada’s national energy program, then you are deemed by the state to be against Canada’s national security.

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And therefore, you had, like I said, the abuse of administrative powers. The Canada Revenue Agency, as an example, was used to target charities that were seen to be supporting local groups – Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples who were opposed to fossil fuel developments.

00:07:05:05 – 00:07:26:05

And the secret intelligence, Canada’s secret intelligence agency, was also weaponized in investigating and infiltrating some of these movements – Indigenous Rights movements and environmental stewardship movements.

00:07:26:22 – 00:08:16:15

And the name of the game for these, you know, the name of the game remains certainty. What Crown governments and what industry wants, and many First Nations are chiming in here, everyone wants certainty. Economic certainty. 

And essentially what this is, if I’m a Crown government and if I issue a permit to access a given resource, whether it’s a forest resource or mineral resource, or fossil fuels. If I issue a permit and the industry now takes that permit, they mobilize resources to go and access and develop those resources. 

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Then they want to have economic certainty that that’s going to actually fly.

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Well, now with Indigenous Peoples blockading and going to court and winning in court, this creates a vast condition of uncertainty, economic uncertainty.

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And so there’s a couple of ways to achieve certainty. There’s a few ways to achieve certainty. One is through litigation.

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And this can take decades, often moving up through the court system all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada, where constitutional cases are often handled. And of course, with the Supreme Court. So a this is an adversarial system. There’s two parties and they’re arguing they’re at odds with one another. 

The other avenue to achieving economic certainty is through political negotiations. 

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And this is, often, highly inflammatory. 

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I’ve sat in on political negotiations, oftentimes negotiators on, will stonewall processes. Riddled with bad faith negotiation tactics and what, generally we call in layman’s terms, ‘talk and log’. Talk and log: where you’re involved in a negotiation, but industry is still developing resources.

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Then you’re back in court, and it’s just like, a very impractical approach to achieving economic certainty. 

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And what I’ve proposed is that there’s a third avenue to certainty. And this is through the creation of Tribal Parks. Previously, what I was referring to at that time is Indigenous Watershed Governance Areas and Indigenous Watershed Management Areas.

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And that eventually evolved into what we call today ‘Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas’. 

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And so through through IPCAs, rather than an adversarial court system or a kind of inflammatory negotiation process, the third avenue towards certainty is through Indigenous Peoples exercising our constitutional rights and responsibilities, and inviting in lower levels of government, industry, civil society, academia, philanthropy, and the general public to proactively create a shared vision of what we want within a given watershed, for the future well-being of all of our grandchildren to come.

00:11:07:11 – 00:11:34:23

So laying down our weapons, which are, you know, which tend towards adversarialness and saying, okay, let’s momentarily drop our positionality and think about what do we want for our grandchildren when we are all here alive today, dead and gone? How do we want the world to be for our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren?

00:11:35:00 – 00:12:02:12

And what I find generally is that people, regardless of skin colour or religion, want the same things by a big majority, for our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. And that’s where we find our common ground. So my mantra has been: find our common ground, build on our common ground, and celebrate our differences. Or learn to celebrate our differences.

00:12:02:14 – 00:12:30:09

Agree to disagree on some hot topics. But what do we agree on? Health and safety, number one. Clean air, clean water, biodiversity, food systems, economic well-being, jobs, you know, livelihoods, sustainable livelihoods, collective security. You know, most people want the same things.

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And why I think it’s best done at a watershed level is because provincial and federal governments, being geographically dislocate from rural areas, are often seen as…

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…and they’re fickle. You know, you get four-year election cycles.

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Anyhow, my point is, it’s better done at the watershed level and to create conditions of economic certainty, there is a third alternative pathway. Which in my mind, and I think, like when we think about creating a community of practice which is unique to the IISAAK OLAM Foundation, the things I’m talking about right now is not, are not the usual things that people talk about when they talk about environmental conservation.

00:13:17:07 – 00:13:59:05

You’re talking with biologists, wildlife conservationists, park managers, so on and so forth. People who often I find don’t have a hot clue about the origin story of this country, the constitutional agency of nation-states, the sophistication and elegance of the founding peace and friendship treaties of this nation, and the potential role for IPCAs to forward a trifecta of biodiversity conservation and climate resiliency, along with reconciliation and peace and friendship, and economic, sustainable development and economic certainty.

00:13:59:05 – 00:14:01:18

Most people in Canada, as an example. 

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They don’t understand what the word ‘Canada’ means. They don’t understand the geopolitical evolution of this nation-state, how Indigenous Nations at every turn from the Seven Years’ War through the War of 1812, were protecting Canada through military cooperation.

00:14:23:11 – 00:14:25:14

We are all treaty people.

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The real – the Primary Treaty is with Creator. It’s from the real people of that land with Creator/Mother Nature.

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And if you live up to those, your side of the agreement, you’re with Creator/Mother Nature, then you have the authority, the legitimate authority to enter into Treaty with other human beings, with other societies.

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But there’s also now roles and responsibilities for those newcomers. The new people who make you make the treaty with

 

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Now, that understanding was, has been kept alive through oral tradition on the Indigenous side.

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But on the non-Indigenous side, that’s – a lot of people don’t understand that they are. Also, as a…

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…Canadian citizen, you are a party to these Peace and Friendship Treaties, and therefore, you have roles and responsibilities in those Treaties.

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And that knowledge and that education was not passed down through the other side. And so as that awareness and education eroded over time, almost in parallel, we see an emergence of a different kind of language.

00:15:46:21 – 00:15:53:19

Around the Westphalian state system and the economy as a phenom.

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The language of the social contract has become so sophisticated that the average Canadian citizen cannot – like if you open up a law book on constitutional law, you need a thesaurus and a dictionary just to kind of stumble your way through there. And this is why lawyers are so key.

00:16:17:17 – 00:16:22:22

They learned to speak that language of the modern social contract.

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Whereas, as an example in Nuu-chah-nulth, our social contract was turned inside out. So in the Canadian system, the Canadian social contract is kind of…shrouded in complex language. Jürgen Habermas called these “legitimations.” And they’re meant to confuse the general public.

00:16:58:16 – 00:17:20:15

But in Nuu-chah-nulth, our social contract was everywhere you looked in the built environment. It was in our totem poles. It was in the crest and the carvings on your, like, spoon, you know, like on the bentwood cedar boxes where you store your gear, or your precious items, your treasures. You know.

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Our social contract was alive.

 

00:17:23:17 – 00:17:41:13

I call it an active participation in a social contract. Where it’s not just put away in complex language that only judges, lawyers, and political scientists can read or understand.

00:17:41:13 – 00:18:20:17

Yeah. And so, through symbolic memory devices like crests in the totem poles, we created an active participation in a social contract. Which were very intelligently woven into stories that are passed on through the generations. Actively engaging in first-person experience, age-old lessons learned, and ethics, and understandings of human and non-human relationship.

00:18:21:14 – 00:18:34:05

Because in Nuu-chah-nulth social contract theory was extended to our community of species that we have co-evolved with over millennia.

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Maybe that’s another subject for a following čukʷaa haʔuk.

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To kind of de facto, to sort of in fact control over land, over what happens on our lands and territories. And de jure is in law – and we have both with the Meares Island Tribal Park, by the way, we exercise de facto control by blockading peacefully.

00:18:59:13 – 00:19:17:02

MacMillan Bloedell in 1984. And then we exercised and demonstrated our de jure control over our lands and waters in 1985, with the Meares Island court case and the successful interlocutory injunction, which still stands to today.

00:19:17:02 – 00:19:21:10

Telling truths about Canada. Jon Ralston Saul and, you know,

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Let’s say, maybe I don’t agree with everything in that book, but I think he did a really good job of advancing a conversation in Canada, about how Canada, in many ways, is a Métis Nation evolved out of peace and friendship.

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And what makes Canada different culturally from the United States of America? what makes Canada different culturally from the United Kingdom, or from France?

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And Saul, John Ralston Saul argues, I think quite compellingly that it is, it’s infiltrated every nuance of Canadian society. It’s harder to put your finger on, because it’s not so explicit.

00:20:13:24 – 00:20:29:03

Well, John Ralston Saul said, you know, sovereignty doesn’t emanate from a magical crown in a secret room in the halls of power on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

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Sovereignty comes from every citizen of Canada and is entrusted in government to wield on our behalf.

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In other words, all Canadian citizens have also constitutional agency that is premised on good behaviour and adherence to the founding Peace and Friendship Treaties of this country.

00:20:58:21 – 00:21:05:06

Just signing a piece of paper or making a wampum belt doesn’t mean forever.

00:21:05:08 – 00:21:23:10

There’s — just like any relationship, there has to be a regular and seasonal reinvestment in that relationship, including keeping alive an understanding and practice of our roles and responsibilities in those Peace and Friendship Treaties.

00:21:23:10 – 00:21:37:19

 Thayendanegea and the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte remembered the silver covenant agreement with the Crown of England and read out a beautiful letter to the Queen.

00:21:37:19 – 00:22:07:19

Then who’s now also passed away. Queen Elizabeth, there. And, I won’t go all into it, but essentially a beautiful reference to our mutual responsibilities and peace and friendship. And how, like silver, our relationship can become tarnished, and, if neglected. But we can always come together and shine our relationship and make it bright and new again.

00:22:08:04 – 00:22:22:10

And so this should happen on a, at a seasonal basis, and is best done in my mind at a watershed level as well. For those Nations that do have Peace and Friendship Treaties that they can turn to.

00:22:22:10 – 00:22:23:08

Singing (Tla-o-qui-aht Master Carver and Historian Joseph Tutakwisnapšiƛ Martin, Board Director, IISAAK OLAM Foundation)

Whoa, whoa whoa oh ho yeah.

00:22:23:15 – 00:22:33:19

(Eli Enns, Tla-o-qui-aht Nation Citizen, Co-Founder and CEO, IISAAK OLAM Foundation)

čukʷaa haʔuk!