Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, [1997] 3 S.C.R. 1010
The Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en peoples are two groups who own and live on varied portions of a 58 000 km territory in British Columbia. In 1997 they sought to establish an official claim to the land through their traditional means. At trial, Gitksan peoples provided evidence of ownership by using “adaawk,” a collection of sacred oral traditions about their ancestors, histories, and territories. The Wet’suwet’en provided evidence by “kungax,” a spiritual song or dance representing their physical and spiritual ties to their land. The trial judge did recognize these forms of evidence to be sufficient in Canadian law to grant ownership. Instead, these groups have “Aboriginal title” defined by constitutional law as the right to occupy and possess the land. Aboriginal title, however, comes with controversial conditions that illustrate how the Canadian government and economic interests can manipulate Section 35 (1) of the constitution to justify the present-day colonization of Aboriginal people’s hereditary land. We see this issue now with the Coastal GasLink company building pipelines on their land because, legally, Aboriginal people are prohibited. Coastal GasLink has destroyed diverse ecosystems essential to land survival and Aboriginal people’s land traditions. Instead of being defended, they are met with RCMP officers who escalate the situation by bringing out canine units and arresting land defenders occupying the territory. The Wet'suwet'en trial decision and issue highlight the repeated use of western values to violate Aboriginal rights and remove them from their land.
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