
A long-fought battle over a tiny island came to a head over the weekend when hundreds of protesters descended on the rock off Ganges, Salt Spring Island, B.C. The protesters are concerned that the aboriginal burial cairns on Grace Islet, B.C., are being desecrated by the construction of a 3,000-square-foot home by an Edmonton man, Barry Slawsky.“It’s already been destroyed,” says Chief Vern Jacks of the Tseycum First Nation, whose ancestry includes people who would have been buried in the area. “It’s awful.”
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The owner was ordered to hire an archeological firm to sift through the disturbed soil, but they found nothing.The house will be built on stilts to avoid the need to bulldoze the site, which McLay believes to be a way of getting around regulations more than a gesture of respect.“Anyone who was serious about respecting Coast Salish culture would take the time to meet with them,” McLay says. “There’s so many burials on the island that it’s basically impossible to build.”But the issue really appears to be about more than just disturbed soil. For the 13 local First Nations, it’s about respect for the site itself, not the individual cairns. In Coast Salish culture, burial sites are places exclusively for the dead, separate from villages, which only specific caretakers could visit.“No one would consider building a house on a [European-style] cemetery,” McLay says.In fact, the BC Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act protects cemeteries from disturbances ranging from firing guns to littering. Unfortunately this does not extend to traditional First Nation burial sites, regardless of how obvious they may be.The plan to build the house is still a go. The main hope for the First Nations was that the province would buy the site from Slawsky and protect it, but the Archaeology Branch scuttled that option, saying there are too many sites like it around the province.Chief Jacks says he is willing to accept compromises—but he just wants someone in the government to take the issue seriously.“They pass the buck so much, by the time it gets back to me it’s thin as a dime.” @j_ws_t
