LIVING IN THE ANTHROPOCENE


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years from now, there will be no timber for them at all. It is all taken up by...settlers who surround the reserve all round, and pretty soon there will be no room.” Chief Jimmy Jim spoke next: “I am going to tell you that I am very


happy to see you here...There are not old people here now. They are all young people here, but we know all about the old people...That was the time when there was no white people here then. And when I was a boy there were no white men here either...until the Bishop and Mr. Gilliod came. He was the first Agent...Mr. Gilliod used to say to the Indians that there would not be any white people here. They will not come here, it is too wild, he said, and white people would not use this land... It is full here now; this small place we cannot fall any trees for firewood in because it is too small for generations to come. We are holding the wood for the people who come after us.” These expressions of concern for the welfare of our people and environ-


ment, spoken in the community of Opitsaht a century ago, reveal both the resonance and continuity of our cultural logic. Another occasion that was celebrated this year was the 30th


anniversary of the declaration of Meares


Island as a Tribal Park in April 1984. This was the result of a significant shift that occurred from 1914 to 1984. After the provincial government of British Columbia had condoned the clear-cut logging of the ancient cedar rainforests of Meares, the Tla-o-qui-aht moved from polite protest to direct action in the form of blockades and litigation, that proved successful. The most significant development from 1984 to 2014 is that the Tla-o-qui-aht have transitioned from blockading logging operations to pioneering Tribal Parks as an alternative to the business-as-usual approach to natural re- source management. The Tribal Parks model is the manifestation of a dramatically different


social contract based on the humanity concept, Quu-us. It extends ideas of justice to the environment we all share and depend upon, and extends this justice through time to the future generations to whom we are ultimately accountable. This social contract is captured in works of art such as the totem pole at left. The crests function as symbolic memory devices that are associated with various knowledge patterns that have been encoded in story. The stories provide a moral education for the listener, guiding their behaviour properly towards others in their human community, as well as other beings with whom they share the environment. This advanced system of active participation in a social contract en-


Tla-o-qui-aht Truth and Reconciliation Commemorative Totem Pole.


18 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER/FALL 2014


sures that stories with encoded knowledge patterns about natural law are an ever-present visual characteristic of the built environment. Far from being just beautiful art, these crests and stories continue to influence eco- logical governance applications in modern times, such as our Tribal Parks initiative. They lead to effective management outcomes in educational eco-tourism, renewable energy projects, ecosystem service programs, and value-added natural resource and non-timber forest product sector development – all with a long-term view of climate-change adaptation and what is in the best interests of the future generations coming “three hundred years from now.” X


Eli Enns is the North American Regional Coordinator for the Indigenous Peoples and Community Conserved Territories and Areas Consortium. He was a featured speaker in 2012 at the third annual Living Earth Festival Symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian – Smithsonian.


PHOTO BY CAMERON DENNISON


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