Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation: Title for Healthy Forests

Campaign Overview

The Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation (MMFN) is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island with a deep connection to the land and sea. Vast fjords host salmon, whales, and coastal wolves, with forests rising into the mystical alpine mountains of the Vancouver Island Alps. All of it has been stewarded by MMFN for thousands of years, a people who depend on the ocean, rivers, and forests to sustain their way of life.

However, through Crown exercises of power and decision-making, MMFN’s territory has been sold and stripped of fish, wildlife, minerals, and trees. Industry has run away with millions of dollars in profit while MMFN, who is left with all the environmental damage from the actions of those industries, fights to maintain their way of life and their right to make decisions about their territory.

The biggest culprit of environmental degradation in MMFN’s territory is the forest industry. MMFN’s territory is almost completely covered by Crown-issued and Crown-authorized Tree Farm Licenses and Timber Supply Areas, and the forestry activity authorized by B.C. has stripped old-growth forests bare. This has caused devastating cultural, spiritual, environmental, and economic harm to MMFN, including the removal of cedar, destruction of culturally modified trees, and annihilation of salmon habitat. The only areas not covered by Tree Farm Licenses or Timber Supply Areas are those recognized as Indian reserves or provincial parks.

The core values of Hisuki?is cawaak (Everything is one), ?iisaak (Respect with caring), and ?uu?aaluk (Taking care of) guide MMFN’s responsibility to protect their unceded and unsurrendered territory. As a result, with the support of their community, they seek recognition of their unextinguished Aboriginal title and further relief to receive redress for past harms and ensure that, in the future, MMFN makes the decisions about the extent of forestry activity in their territory.

Will you act in solidarity with MMFN as they seek this recognition to protect their territory?

The territory that MMFN claims Aboriginal title over has been its home since time immemorial. MMFN has a deep cultural and spiritual connection to this territory that informs their very identity as an Indigenous People. Unfortunately, Crown authorization of forestry activity in MMFN’s territory is but one example of how the Crown has sought to dispossess MMFN of its territory and way of life.

Through the title claim, MMFN seeks to ensure they are in control of their futures, as they rightly should be. This includes the ability to protect their territory, including the forests, the ocean, and the foreshore, and all the non-human relations that inhabit the territory.

MMFN’s need to move their title case forward to protect their territory is urgent. They have been let down by the Crown again and again, while B.C. directly benefits from MMFN’s territories. Supporting MMFN to pursue their title case will give MMFN the means needed to manage their territory, mitigate climate change, revitalize their forests, ensure they can benefit from the regional economy, and advance systemic change for First Nations across British Columbia to achieve the same.

No Indigenous government should have to choose between providing essential services to their community and pursuing justice in the courts. RAVEN’s support is crucial to ensure MMFN can direct their resources and capacity towards meeting the urgent needs of their members, without sacrificing their ability to pursue legal action.

MMFN’s title case seeks declarations from the court that MMFN has Aboriginal title to their territory and that B.C. has unjustifiably infringed that title. It is one of the few Aboriginal title cases that seeks compensation for the unjustified infringements committed by B.C. One form of compensation MMFN seeks is an accounting of the revenues B.C. has gained from Crown-authorized forestry activity and the disgorgement of that revenue.

The Crown has immensely profited from forestry activity on MMFN’s territory at MMFN’s expense. For example, the Province has collected hundreds of millions of dollars in stumpage fees since the onset of industrial logging in MMFN’s territory and millions of cubic metres of timber. Meanwhile, MMFN has lost the use and enjoyment of its territory, which includes hunting, fishing, harvesting berries and medicines, and cultural connections to its forests.

The loss of forests on MMFN’s territory is specifically due to the Crown authorizing and making decisions about forest tenures under the Forest Act and the Forest and Range Practices Act. Forestry tenures on MMFN’s territory include three Tree Farm Licenses and three Timber Supply Areas, which cover almost all of MMFN’s territory other than the areas recognized as reserve lands and provincial parks. All of these areas have either been logged or managed by external forestry companies with the Province’s oversight.

MMFN is also asserting Aboriginal title to the submerged lands in its territory, including submerged lands covered by freshwater and parts of the ocean. This includes, but is not limited to, the submerged lands of Muchalat Inlet, Gold River, Muchalt River, Elk River, and Buttle Lake. MMFN had exclusive use of their waters prior to the Crown’s assertion of sovereignty over what is now British Columbia in 1846, and thrived off marine resources.

MMFN is asking the Court for compensation for the historical and ongoing wrongs and losses caused by the Crown. While the case law suggests compensation for these wrongs and losses is possible, no court has granted these remedies in an Aboriginal title case to date. MMFN’s case will set new precedents for Nations across B.C. when they are successful.