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B.C. Appeals Court sides with First Nation over Aboriginal title on Nootka Island | Globalnews.ca
The B.C. Court of Appeal says a lower court judge used an “arbitrary boundary” to determine a First Nation’s Aboriginal title over a swath o
Global News
The B.C. Court of Appeal says a lower court judge used an “arbitrary boundary” to determine a First Nation’s Aboriginal title over a swath of Nootka Island off western Vancouver Island.
A three-judge panel says the B.C. Supreme Court made three legal errors when limiting the Nuchatlaht Nation’s claim over a 201 square kilometre portion of the island, finding the tribe had met the test for “sufficient occupation” when the British Crown asserted sovereignty.
The 2024 lower court ruling found the Nuchatlaht had established title over coastal areas of the island, but the Appeal Court found the judge had relied too much on the findings of an anthropologist about the nation’s use of “remote inland” areas before and after 1846.
The ruling says the trial judge drew an “arbitrary boundary” in granting title over a portion of the area claimed, which wasn’t “based upon the Nuchatlaht’s manner of life, material resources, and technological abilities.”
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The fact that the previous judge was over-reliant on an assessment by an anthropologist is disappointing but not surprising.
Anthropology is a field of study that requires a great deal of consideration to be done ethically and lacks said consideration with unfortunate frequency.
All too often, anthropologists from colonial countries and communities don’t account for their own bias and don’t consult with the local Indigenous communities whose history they are studying.
Then, a judge, someone who is part of a colonial system of government on occupied land, has their own bias. So when an anthropologist’s report confirms that bias, they often will not look past it, not seeking out and/or outright refusing to consider what the local Indigenous community is and has been saying.
My point is that colonial bias has been a factor at every step of this process, but I’m so glad to hear that it ended up in front of a panel of judges who were willing to acknowledge and confront that bias.
Small victories are better than none.
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The fact that the previous judge was over-reliant on an assessment by an anthropologist is disappointing but not…
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