Downtown Nanaimo village site returned to the Snuneymuxw First Nation
Chief Mike Wyse said the day marks the rightful reconnection and restoration of the Snuneymuxw people to their sxwayxum village. Photo: Joe Pugh / CHLY 101.7fm
In partnership with the Province of BC, the Snuneymuxw First Nation has been returned a prominent piece of property in downtown Nanaimo.
The provincial government and Snuneymuxw purchased the 2.67-hectare property at 1 Terminal Avenue and adjoining properties for $28.5 million, to which the province contributed nearly $26 million.
The land previously housed the old Howard Johnson Hotel, a parking lot and other businesses that have been left derelict.
CHLY attended the press conference with the Snuneymuxw First Nation and the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation at Maffeo Sutton Park on July 15.
Chief Mike Wyse of Snuneymuxw First Nation said that the transfer marks another monumental day for the First Nation and the province.
“We are gathered to acknowledge a significant step forward with returning our Snuneymuxw village back to our people,” Wyse said. “It is with deep gratitude that we announced the return of 2.67 hectares of the sxwayxum village site to the Snuneymuxw.”
Wyse said the sxwayxum (Squ-ay-come 🗣️) village also known as the Millstone River Village, is a place where Snuneymuxw people have lived for 1,000s of years before settlers came to the area.
“Here is the place where we had several long houses, fisheries, medicines, and other cultural and spiritual practices of our people that are inherently connected to these lands,” Wyse said. “Our Snuneymuxw economic, cultural, social and legal systems dominated this territory, and these are the systems that the settlers relied upon, for survival and sustenance.”
He said the day marks the rightful reconnection and restoration of the Snuneymuxw people to their sxwayxum village.
The return of land is a commitment to the Sarlequun (Sar-li-quinn 🗣️) Snuneymuxw Treaty of 1854. This saw the Crown represented by James Douglas, enter into the treaty with the Snuneymuxw People in December 1854. The treaty made promises to preserve and protect Snuneymuxw villages, enclosed fields, waterways, harvesting and gathering, and the rights to hunt and fisheries as the Snuneymuxw did before settlers came.
Wyse said the return of the land will have positive impacts on the Snuneymuxw people, residents of Nanaimo, the region as a whole and everyone who visits the downtown area.
“By returning this land to Snuneymuxw we are not only honouring treaty commitments but also supporting the shared economic goals and aspirations that our nation has with [the] government,” he said. “Our collaboration with the province on this joint purchase of the 2.67 hectares exemplifies a genuine partnership dedicated to correcting historical injustice.”
Murray Rankin, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation said it has been 170 years since the treaty was signed that has not always honoured the promises made in it. But he said it is the government's job to now rectify the injustices.
“Since time immemorial, the Snuneymuxw have been stewards of this land and the joint acquisition of the parcels represents a huge step forward together with this community, for the determination of the role of those lands in years to come,” Rankin said
He said the property has a lot of potential and is an important space for the downtown area as well as a spiritual and cultural space for the Snuneymuxw people.
“So I'm thrilled on behalf of our government to be taking this step together at this time,” Rankin said. “It's going to take time, and it's going to take effort, and it's going to take passion to get to where we want to go together.”
Rankin said that the process to remediate the site will take time. As a part of the initiative, the province is contributing $1 million for this process for the security infrastructure, demolition and remediation costs. Both the province and Snuneymuxw will work in partnership to maintain security at the site.
MLA for Nanaimo Sheila Malcolmson, spoke at the conference.
“For all of Nanaimo, this village site, sxwayxum, is also at the heart of Nanaimo downtown. The city needs good development here and it's been a real hole in our community that it's been vacant and empty in the way that it has,” Malcolmson said. “So with [the province] buying and returning the land to Snuneymuxw, we're repairing at the same time a historic wrong, but we're also repairing a hole in our cityscape.”
She said this is one more step towards honouring the commitments made and fixing the commitments that have not been kept.
After the press conference, Chief Wyse said to media that Snuneymuxw has to still figure out what the plans for the space will be, but clarified that the focus will be on development.
He said the plan for now is to clean up the sacred space and make it safer for the greater public which will involve getting rid of the empty buildings as soon as possible.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.