The Heiltsuk Nation in B.C.’s Central Coast has voted to approve a precedent-setting constitution.
Sixty-seven per cent of the 725 Heiltsuk citizens who voted approved a written constitution following nearly two decades of development and consultation, six months of in-person and online community engagement and a two-week voting period, which ended on Thursday night.
The nation said the constitution means it can “reclaim its power.”
“This is a monumental day for our Nation, marking a foundational step toward self-determination,” Marilyn Slett, elected chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, said in a statement.
“The new constitution assists us in the reclamation and affirmation of our power and to make laws that meet the priorities and needs of our people, from citizenship to land management. It allows us to govern beyond the Indian Act and in accordance with our ǧvi̓ḷás. It also creates legal clarity and certainty for our Nation and those we choose to do business with.
“Questions about decision-making and law will be resolved within our Nation, not outside of it.”
Yím̓as Frank Brown, a hereditary chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, said they have never ceded, surrendered or extinguished their inherent right to govern the Haíɫzaqv people and their territory.
“The Haíɫzaqv Constitution is precedent-setting because it affirms that we have always had the right to govern ourselves and we have never relinquished this right,” he said.
“This is our ǧvi̓ḷás in action and is an affirmation of our inherent Indigenous legal traditions, by us, for us.”
The written constitution lays out a legal framework, from founding provisions and rights and responsibilities to government structure and law-making, the nation stated in an email.
It also enshrines the best practice of co-operation and collaboration between ancient forms of governance like the Yím̓as (hereditary chiefs) and W̓úm̓aqs du M̓ṇúyaqs Council (Women’s Council), and elected tribal council officials, through new shared law-making, decision-making and advisory councils.
Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders from across the province will be invited to a ratification feast in Bella Bella on May 30.
Only once it is passed by a referendum and upheld in ceremony will it come into effect, using both inherent Indigenous law and a democratic process.