Community members gathered on the SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout) reserve on the south end of Salt Spring Island Tuesday, June 3 to kick off a fundraising campaign for purchase of an adjacent piece of land.
The gathering heard that the Salt Spring Island Foundation (SSIF) is accepting donations to help cover the $600,000 in costs for the 2.17-acre parcel on Menhinick Drive recently acquired by the SȾÁUTW̱ First Nation and providing tax receipts to donors.
SSIF executive director Shannon Cowan said the foundation was eager to support the SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout) Land Back Campaign when they were approached to help out by islanders Briony Penn and Ashley Hilliard last year.
“We are really meant to be the ‘foundation,’ like the land, like the family. This is what we’re here for. We’re here for giving. We’re here to give back. We’re here to create community through giving and through family.”
With initial private donations and $50,000 pledged by the SSIF board, some $167,000 was already in hand by the campaign’s launch date.
“So we’re actually 30 per cent of the way there, and we hope that we can raise enough to be 50 per cent of the way there by Indigenous Peoples Weekend in a few weeks,” said Cowan.
Elected SȾÁUTW̱ Chief Abraham Pelkey told the crowd on June 3 he first became aware of a possible purchase of Beach family lands near his nation’s reserve about five years ago when he held the lands portfolio as a SȾÁUTW̱ council member. He also emphasized the acquisition’s importance to SȾÁUTW̱ people and his gratitude to everyone involved in making it happen.
“It’s really amazing for all of us as entities, community members, to come together for such an amazing day for Land Back, because you’re really helping us as people. We’re helping each other and working together, because, you know, for us, it’s not just a piece of land, it’s really our inherent right as people and for the culture, oral traditions and our responsibilities to the world.”
Hilliard, a community member who helped facilitate both the SȾÁUTW̱ purchase and acquisition of some 400 acres of adjacent land by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) in 2023, was among other speakers. The Beach family previously owned both the NCC and SȾÁUTW̱ lands. Rosalie Beach attended the June 3 event.
“We have a concrete opportunity before us now to support and give land back to one of the nations of whom Salt Spring was the traditional territory,” said Hilliard.
“If you would like to say thank you to the nation for their generosity over the years and sharing their access to their land . . . I hope that all of you will spread the word and go to the Salt Spring Island Foundation website and you will see the donation button there, and I hope you will be as generous as you can be.”
The purchase is also of general benefit because it connects the end of Menhinick Drive to the NCC’s Regional Hill Nature Reserve (RHNR) with an informal trail. If the lot was sold on the open market, it could have resulted in closing of the trail to the public.
“The SȾÁUTW̱ have agreed to provide a registered trail easement over Lot A to secure the trail access to RHNR in perpetuity,” SSIF materials explain. “This is in keeping with the SȾÁUTW̱ First Nation’s extraordinary generosity in allowing Salt Spring Islanders and visitors to walk the trails on their reserve.”
Several other people spoke to the crowd of SȾÁUTW̱ First Nation members and W̱ELENITEM (settlers) on June 3, before enjoying a feast of salmon, crab and salads, and a cake made from and decorated with local native plants such as nettles, elderflower, salmonberries, Nootka rose and thimble berry flowers, among other ingredients, by Adina Guest of Love’s Galettes.
See the June 18 issue of the Driftwood newspaper for more on the event as it relates to National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21.