Indigenous non-profit buying land near site of former First Nation village on Salt Spring Island

A 10-acre (four-hectare) parcel of land on one of B.C.'s Southern Gulf Islands will soon become property of an Indigenous-led non-profit society.

The land on Salt Spring Island is near where the Quw'utsun (Cowichan) village of Xwaaqw'um (HWAA-kwum) once stood. The Quw'utsun have traditional territory stretching from Vancouver Island across the Salish Sea to the mainland. 

The current owners are selling to the Stqeeye' Learning Society, which runs a land-based learning program for local Indigenous youth and is also working to restore both a nearby wetland and a Garry oak ecosystem. 

The society, which will take ownership of the land in the Xwaaqw'um Valley on Dec. 1, currently operates in nearby Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park. 

Maiya Modeste, a project co-ordinator with the society whose traditional name is Sulatiye', said the new land will allow Stqeeye' to continue its work without the bureaucracy of working within the parks system.

In the Hul'qumi'num language, Xwaaqw'um, which was a rich site for food, means "place of the female merganser duck." 

Modeste hopes the land will be a place for hunting and harvesting, and where cultural rites can be practised in private, as well as a place for land-based learning.

She says the project is a long-time dream of her grandfather, who recently passed away.

Her grandfather's great-grandfather was a chief of the village and left land to his daughter — but when she married a non-Indigenous man, she lost her First Nations status under the Indian Act and could not hold the land, Modeste said. 

Modeste said it was around that time that settlers took the land. 

The opportunity to buy the lot was perfect, Modeste says. 

She said the owners approached the society because they wanted to sell to someone who cared about the land as much as they did. 

"So it feels really, really amazing the way that it's all happened," said Modeste.

"I think it's my life's work now to fulfil [my grandfather's] legacy and his dream, and everything he and my grandma have taught me throughout these years were preparing me for this moment."

Restoring wetlands, creating land stewards

Rachel Bevington, a restoration biologist with the society, is leading a project to rebuild 20 acres of wetlands near the former village, where logging and agriculture have damaged the landscape. 

She says restoration projects funded through grants have allowed the society to offer full-time employment to 13 people, 11 of whom are Indigenous. 

"That is something that we're really proud of. We are creating the stewards of the land for the future," said Bevington.

The wetlands also act as carbon sinks.

The restoration projects will expand onto the newly purchased property. 

The society is working to raise $2 million to pay for the land, and to expand its work there.