Whose Land Is It Anyway?

The residential schools are the clearest example of the attempt to enforce the incredible racist stupidity of the Indian Act. [...] From 1992 to 1996, a heady time when the legal and political phase of our peoples’ struggle was at its peak, the voices of our ancestors came through in the wisdom spoken to the Commission through our clan 12 The Decolonization and Reconciliation Handbook mothers, chiefs and youth. [...] In a rare show of integrity and respect on the part of government, the commissioners listened and the voices of our ancestors echoed in the multiple volumes of the Commission’s lengthy and comprehensive report when they stated clearly and emphatically that what is needed to achieve the full decolo- nization of Canada is a massive transfer of land back to the Indigenous peoples. [...] The land claims policy of Canada works from the assumption that the title vests in the Crown and that the Indians are making a “claim” for our own lands and territories. [...] Except for the treaties made on Vancouver Island and a small section of the northeastern part of what is now called British Columbia, the rest of the present province remains without the treaties that were demanded by the directives of the British Crown.