In the places we call home, how do we belong? Belonging with Indigenous Lands examines the auukiathò (Tla-o-qui-aht) Tribal Parks Allies program and its reception by settler communities on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Facing catastrophic logging of ancient rainforests in 1984, members of the auukiathò First Nation and settler allies mobilized a campaign of resistance. Those efforts successfully protected the watersheds of Meares Island and included the declaration of one of Canada's first Indigenous-managed park systems. Since then, tourism in Tofino has become an economic juggernaut, but auukiathò have not equitably benefited despite disproportionately bearing the costs of stewarding the land on which that industry depends. Therefore, in 2018, the Nation created the Tribal Parks Allies program, asking local tourism-related businesses to voluntarily agree to collect and contribute a 1 percent fee from clients to support ecosystem maintenance, cultural revitalization, and Indigenous well-being initiatives. Community responses ranged from enthusiastic to defiantly resistant. This richly collaborative volume brings together Indigenous and settler authors to unpack, in both English and nuucaanul, competing conceptualizations of sovereignty, social contracts, Indigenous protocol, land, time, and colonialism. In the process, they illuminate the different ways we understand place-based belonging and our relation to those with whom we share our homes.
Belonging with Indigenous Lands : Resurgence, Reciprocity, and Environmental Stewardship in the Tla-O-qui-aht Tribal Parks