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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/09/british-columbia-blueprint-decolonisation>
"A wild experiment is under way in British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost
province: the government is rewriting its laws to share power with Indigenous
nations over a land base bigger than France and Germany combined.
Decades in the making, this transition entered history in 2019, when BC became
the first jurisdiction on Earth to sign the Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into law. This means the regional government would
share decision-making power over land management matters with First Nations,
potentially affecting leasing and licences for forestry, mining and
construction.
The legislation is dauntingly complex, involving distinct negotiations with
more than 200 First Nations and the dismantling of a system built to protect
industrial profits over any other interest.
“We’re building a plane while flying it,” says Terry Teegee, chief of the BC
Assembly of First Nations and chair of BC’s UNDRIP implementation committee.
“It’s unique to anywhere in the world.”
“It’s path-breaking,” agrees Sheryl Lightfoot, an Anishinaabe scholar and
member of the UN expert mechanism on the rights of Indigenous peoples. “What we
see in BC is such a deliberate, intentional approach to implement the
Declaration,” Lightfoot says. “We’ve all been calling for member states to do
[similar] legislation.”
Almost 150 countries voted for UNDRIP when the UN general assembly adopted it
in 2007, but their support is purely symbolic. So far only Canada has followed
BC’s lead in turning UNDRIP into law. The impact of that federal legislation
has been muted, however, by provincial jurisdiction over land-use decisions –
the very authority BC is starting to share with First Nations.
While a handful of countries, from Ecuador and Bolivia to Norway and Kenya,
have introduced constitutional reforms with UNDRIP in mind, “they’ve all
experienced quite an implementation gap”, Lightfoot says.
A painful example she cites is New Zealand, widely regarded as a world leader
in Indigenous rights: “In 2019, the expert mechanism was invited into New
Zealand to give advice on how to implement the declaration. We recommended
legislation, reporting mechanisms and an action plan, similar to what’s
happening in BC now. And there
was work in New Zealand on the action plans,
but the weakness was they didn’t do legislation first.”
The pandemic slowed everything down, then last October a new Conservative
coalition formed a government that is openly hostile to Indigenous rights. “Now
nothing is happening.”
“A lot of people look toward New Zealand as being a leader, but in actual fact
British Columbia is so far ahead of us,” says Valmaine Toki, a Maori scholar
who took over from Lightfoot in July as chair of the UN expert mechanism. “Our
government has not progressed any legislative recognition of UNDRIP.”"
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
