BC and First Nations Announce New Initiative to Support Training for Guardians
A member of the Nuxalk Guardian Watchmen, British Columbia. Photo credit: ’Qátuw̓as Brown
April 4, 2023
By Frank Brown
Indigenous Guardians care for lands and waters across British Columbia. In recognition of the broad benefits of Guardians programs, the Government of British Columbia and First Nations are launching a collaborative process to create more training opportunities for Guardians.
Guardians’ stewardship is needed now more than ever. BC has experienced destructive flooding brought on atmospheric rivers and wildfires fueled by drought. Our salmon populations are crashing, and orcas, herring, and other iconic West Coast species are also in decline. Cedar what we refer to as the tree of life is under tremendous ecological stress due to these changes.
We need Guardians on the ground to gather data informed by local and traditional knowledge to guide our response to these challenges. We need Guardians caring for the refugia that will sustain animals, fish, and communities in the face of climate change and loss of biodiversity.
Today’s announcement will prepare more Guardians to become stewards of lands and waters we all depend on.
It offers hope for youth looking for jobs that are rooted in Indigenous values, culture and knowledge. And it provides practical steps for building First Nations’ capacities to lead informed decision making around land, water, and resources within our territories.
First Nations have long honoured the responsibility to care for lands and waters. We continue to uphold the traditional laws and teachings that sustained our people for millennia. In the recent period of colonization, our systems of governance and our connections to the land have been deeply undermined by discriminatory legislation that attempted to separate us from land water and resources including separating children from our parents, families, language, history and culture.
A member of the Haida Watchmen, Haida Gwaii. Photo credit: Bernard Roitberg.
Guardians and other land-based programs help restore the balance and our relationships with the land, water, and resources that sustained our people through the good times and the bad times in our territories. These programs offer a renewal and strengthening of our communities.
We are not who are ancestors were, nor are Indigenous rights a frozen concept in time. Instead, we use the best of western science, local and Indigenous knowledge while holding on to our traditional teachings including the recognition that all things are interconnected.
The new Guardians initiative marks an important step in the journey to create greater understanding recognition and investment in Indigenous-led conservation. First Nations in BC have been at the forefront of this work. They have launched some of the first modern Guardians programs and established many Indigenous Protected Areas on land and sea.
To support this leadership, the ILI helped prepare a BC-focused blueprint in 2022 called, Good for the Land, Good for the People, Good for the Economy. The report was shaped by consultations with over 60 First Nations leaders across the province. The BC First Nations Summit, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, and the BC Assembly of First Nations have all joined in the call to action and have passed resolutions supporting this work.
Apart of our calls to action was to “undo 150 years of colonial harms that continue to be felt to this day.” In part through greater training and capacity for Guardians programs, and so we applaud this new initiative and the shift underway toward greater recognition of First Nations’ inherent rights to care for lands and waters.
The Guardians and Stewardship Training Initiative will be codeveloped this year by First Nations and the province, and we look forward to its launch and expansion. Because preparing more Guardians to look after salmon and cedar, language and culture, community health and wellbeing will be good for our shared future.
