Haida Gwaii

The Haida caught the world’s attention in the winter of 1985-86 when they blocked logging trucks seeking to harvest old-growth forests on Haida Gwaii, a chain of islands off the coast of British Columbia. The distinct coastal culture of the Haida depends on the abundant red cedar trees, forests which have been decimated by five decades of intensive clear-cutting. First Nations activism led to the 1993 creation of a parks reserve on Gwaii Haanas, the southern group of islands. But in the years that followed, it was business as usual on the rest of the archipelago. A landmark recent agreement to increase the protected area to 52% of the islands’ total land base heralds a new era in Haida control over their ancestral land. This achievement is the result of both extensive negotiation and passionate protest. Haida Nation president Guujaaw gives insight into his people’s determination: “When diplomacy and reason fails, the spirit rises.”

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Resources

• Council of the Haida Nation
• Strategic Land Use Agreement (PDF) signed Dec 12, 2007 between the Haida Nation and the Province of British Columbia
• “Land use agreement marks beginning of a new relationship” Queen Charlotte Islands Observer January 18, 2008
• Islands Spirit Rising chronicles the April 2005 protests
• Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve
• SGang Gwaay World Heritage site: Parks Canada page and UNESCO page
• “Sacred Objects, Art and Nature in a Global Economy” Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson in Paradigm Wars
• First Nations: Land Rights and Environmentalism in British Columbia provides extensive information and images covering First Nations history and corporate development in the province
• EAGLE (Environmental-Aboriginal Guardianship through Law and Education), a nonprofit organization which seeks to combine the strengths of both Aboriginal and environmental law to assist Aboriginal Peoples in protecting the land and environment for the benefit of all Canadians.