Disagreement-in-principle: Negotiating the right to practice Coast Salish culture in treaty talks on Vancouver Island, BC

• Main Author: Brian Thom
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; French
• Published: New Proposals Publishing Society 2008
• Subjects: treaty negotiations; land claims; culture; self-government; certainty; Social Sciences; H; Socialism. Communism. Anarchism; HX1-970.7; First Nations
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/848de9a026b24428a4fab6fbf1941589

In negotiations to define the nature and scope of aboriginal rights, land ownership and self-government, British Columbia-based First Nations are asked to consider a clause setting out a right to practice their culture. When read in the full context of these proposed treaty agreements, the vision of the culture defined in this right is static and narrow, removing the constitutional protections for the complex and powerful social, political, economic dimensions of a more fully realized understanding of culture. This paper critically evaluates this proposed treaty right in the context of the long-standing processes of assimilation, and describes a more dynamic model of recognition and reconciliation of these cultural rights in treaties.