Since time immemorial, Aboriginal people in BC have safeguarded the lands, waters and sea life of the Pacific Coast. Through stories, teachings and ceremonies as well as community and family protocols and practices, they acted as stewards, protecting the sacred and ancestral places around them.
Aboriginal people in Canada have deep rooted personal and spiritual connections to the lands, waters and animals of their traditional territories and communities. Living Oceans Society honours and respects those connections and promotes Aboriginal Peoples’ full rights and freedoms to access those time-honoured, sacred marine places and ocean resources that are vital to the nurturing, wellbeing, subsistence and development of the cultural fabric comprising Aboriginal communities in Canada.
Though in the past Aboriginal People were seldom appropriately acknowledged or consulted about their traditional, beliefs, practices, or historical rights by federal agencies, they hold a strong, inherent link to the past and present when it comes to ecological knowledge about marine life and about protecting our marine areas. First Nations' government support is therefore crucial to the establishment of MPAs in Canadian waters.
The Canadian Constitution establishes aboriginal rights and title and subsequent rulings from Canada’s Supreme Court have clarified how these rights are defined. The 1990 Sparrow Decision dealt specifically with aboriginal access to fisheries based on their traditional practices and ensured that First Nations retain their rights to fish for food, social and ceremonial purposes in their traditional fishing places. The use of oral history to prove historical rights and title was confirmed in the 1997 Delgamuukw decision. These, along with other precedent-setting cases, are shaping the rights that must be respected in the establishment of MPAs, and Living Oceans Society is committed to establishing MPAs that do not infringe on aboriginal rights and title.
