Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks Guardians tend to the Intergenerational gardens, that include the largest intact ancient coastal rainforest on Vancouver Island.

https://canada.ca/nature


* * * * * Transcript * * * * *
MOSES MARTIN (Chief Councilor, Tla-o-qui-aht Nation):
The two Nuu-chah-nulth principles that we were all raised with, one of them being hishuk ish tsa’walk, and the other one iisaak, those are… to me are the two cornerstones of this thing called self-governance, right? And that we’re told that everything in life is connected, including the forests, and the rivers, and then the fish.
And then also we’re told that if we’re going to impact anything within that circle of life, that we have to do it with respect. And when you think about that, that… that’s our whole life.
That’s our duty to honour those principles in life.

TSIMKA MARTIN (Tla-o-qui-aht Nation):
In response to an imminent threat of logging in April 1984, the Chief Councillor at the time, Moses Martin, declared this area to be a travel park with the support of our community and our Ha’huulthii, to tell the world what our vision is for this place, which is to continue to caretake it in much the same way as our ancestors did.

GISELE MARTIN (Tla-o-qui-aht Nation):
We have had forest guardians. Every area of the forest had forest guardians associated with them. There were names for different parts of the forest, just like you have names for different neighbourhoods in town. There were river guardians, every stream and river had a river guardian associated with it. And this carried on all over the place, there were people who took care of the estuaries, the clam gardens, the intertidal fishing areas, and even the deep offshore waters.

JOE MARTIN (Tla-o-qui-aht Nation):
We are at Cisaɋis (Cis-a-qis or Heelboom Bay), site of the 1984 blockade of MacMillan Bloedel, who was the logging company that planned to log here. And then… so they were actually going to be starting over on the other side there, and then… anyway, we… a whole bunch of people gathered here and then this cabin was built during that time.
But they came in a boat here and they came ashore here, and it was a lot of people from the village that came.

TERRY (DORWARD) SEITCHER (Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks):
The Meares Island Declaration was a fight that we took on, our chiefs and elders that took on, and it was a fight of recognition of Tla-o-qui-aht title and rights. It was one of the first in the province dealing with logging companies. It took those blockades, that direct-action stance amongst our people at that time to say that “you know, yes, we are still here, we still have traditional laws in place.”
And that will never go away. Our laws are something that are sacred, that are part of nature.

ELI ENNS (Tla-o-qui-aht):
The idea of protecting part of nature and not respecting other parts of nature is so foreign from a Nuu-chah-nulth paradigm. You know, Moses used the word 35 years ago. He welcomed people ashore and he said, we would like you to join us for a meal, but you have to leave your chainsaws in the boats. This is not a tree farm; this is our garden.
This is Wah’nah’juss Hilth’hoo’iss, this is our garden, this is a tribal park.
And so, he wanted to medicine them with the true name of that place, but he knew that they wouldn’t be able to understand that. And to try to use English words to describe the sacredness of Wah’nah’juss Hilth’hoo’iss, he invoked the Christian ethic of the Garden of Eden; this is a sacred place; this is a place of creation. And to nail the point home, he said that this is a tribal park.
And since then, that’s created an anchor point for our nation to be able to reapply the teachings of iisaak (respect) -- hishuk ish tsa’walk (everything is connected, everything is one).
(Speaks in Indigenous language).
All of these teaching and values and governance principles have been able to experience a renaissance in the past 35 years.

TSIMKA MARTIN:
These forests, in the past, and still currently in many areas, have been commodified and just seen as a… like tree farms, but there’s so much more going on here.
In our language we call it hit’aht’liss (ph), and it’s like our church, it’s a really important, peaceful, beautiful place.
There’s all kinds of beings that live and depend on this place.
We’re considered the cedar-salmon people, so we get our housing, our transportation, and a lot of our cultural items are made out of the red cedar tree, so it’s really important that we are mindful and careful in how we harvest, and that we’re looking out for the future generations of cedars that come up.

MOSES MARTIN:
It’s important for all of us to work together to protect our future generations.
What are we going to leave behind for them?