Two First Nations leadership sources say British Columbia Premier David Eby is backing down again on the suspension of key parts of the Decl
British Columbia Premier David Eby has backed down again on the pausing of key parts of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, scrapping plans to table a suspension bill this legislative session.
The premier’s office says in a brief statement that it “can confirm that the government will not be introducing legislation on DRIPA during this session.”
Instead, it says Eby will hold a press conference Monday to outline next steps.
A draft document provided by a First Nations source says the government now hopes to work with First Nations to come up with a joint approach to DRIPA, under a framework for negotiations.
The historic act, which recognized a river as a legal entity, moves away from litigation and places community decision-making at its center.
Excerpt from this story from The Revelator:
In 2017, after more than a century of legal struggles by the Māori people of the Whanganui River (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi), the 292-kilometer Whanganui River — also known as Te Awa Tupua — became the first river in the world to be recognized as a legal entity, granting it the same rights and powers as a legal person.
The passage of the Te Awa Tupua Act has been a milestone for Aotearoa New Zealand — a name that reflects the country’s Māori identity and colonial history. It has also been read as an encouraging example for the granting of legal personhood to ecosystems in other parts of the world.
While Whanganui personhood is a good news story, we must recognize that the path to Parliament’s passage of the Te Awa Tupua Act was entrenched in colonial dynamics. Māori Iwi of the Whanganui region have long had to advocate against an often conservative and Western-minded government structure. Their relentless advocacy efforts have shaped the narrative of Te Awa Tupua, a story rooted in the deep connection between culture, land, and water.
The clash between Te Awa Tupua and Western legal frameworks, alongside Indigenous law, serves as the backdrop for continuing political and cultural dynamics. More recently, with the inauguration of Aotearoa New Zealand’s new coalition government led by conservative Christopher Luxon, these challenges have become more conspicuous.
We believe that the Te Awa Tupua Act should not only be read by law- and policymakers as a legal framework, but also as an inspiration for communities to embrace a leadership model entrenched in Tupua Te Kawa principles, the system of principles underpinning Te Awa Tupua.
The implications of destroying Oak Flat cannot be genuinely understood without looking at the context, history, and relationships of Indigenous people to the land. Similarly, collaborating with a company like Rio Tinto cannot be understood without recognizing their very destructive history and relationship with Native peoples.
Zinaida Carroll in Restoration Magazine at NIWRC (June, 2021). Oak Flat | Chi'chil Bildagoteel.
The Spiritual Connecton of Idigenous Women to the Land and Its Crucial Role in the Apache's Battle for Sovereignty
The rare collection of laws of the Cherokee Nation shown here was published at Tahlequah, the Cherokee Nation’s capital. It was printed in Cherokee using a syllabary adopted by the Nation in 1825.
The owners of this copy used the page above to list their family members and birthdays. One child, Sequoyah, was likely named after the founder of the Cherokee writing system.
This is an offer directed at business people that quickly greeted the right-wing government’s initiative. Therefore, it’s a proposal aimed at the interests of the business class, disguised as a development and peace initiative for the region. Today the government intends to affect even more the Mapuche people, modifying the indigenous law and allowing our lands to ‘enter the market. Recognizing autonomy comes hand-in-hand with the recognition of all the collective rights we have as a people, the autonomy of the Wallmapu can’t be solved with quotas in parties controlled by the national Chilean oligarchy. The situation of our language is critical and we can’t see any willingness for a serious revitalization plan. Speaking about development in the Araucania, known to us as the Wallmapu, without taking into account the Mapuzugun is a continuation of the Wallmapu chilenization plan of late 19th century.
Wallmapuwen political party statement, rejecting the Chilean government's new Araucania Development Plan, intended to ‘pacify’ the Mapuche territory in exchange for millions of dollars in public investment.
But let’s set aside for a moment the question of the legitimacy or illegality of those protests. Where have all these influential voices been on the much larger rule of law question, the one that set the stage for these conflicts in the first place?
For more than 150 years, Indigenous governance structures and legal systems have been dismantled, local knowledge and language deliberately decimated, treaties violated, and Indigenous land settled without a legal leg to stand on. Still, even with all the bad laws, bad faith, and shrugging off the rule of law, we can’t seem to muster as a country a heartbeat of empathy or patience or self awareness.
Jennifer Ditchburn in The Narwhal. Canada loves the rule of law (unless we’re talking Indigenous rights)
For the vast majority of this country's history, the rules have been flagrantly broken when it comes to Indigenous land and rights
