Banner image: ShoreZone
Cumulative effects of colonial development in and around səlilwət (Burrard Inlet) have profoundly infringed upon Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s (TWN) rights, title, and interests. TWN has experienced ongoing and significant loss of use of its traditional territory since European contact through innumerable impacts, including from urban and industrial development, resource extraction, pollution, land-use decisions, and restrictive laws and regulations. This has left our people with no meaningful ability to exercise many rights, including harvesting many culturally important food sources or safely using Burrard Inlet for cultural and subsistence purposes.
While we cannot fully measure the impacts of colonization on Tsleil-Waututh Nation, many impacts leave a clear footprint on our lands and waters. As colonial development has marched through our territory, the footprints have layered upon each other and trampled many of our rights. This map series compiles publicly available data to visualize many of those footprints and considers the impacts on Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s rights.
When all the layers of terrestrial and marine impacts included in this analysis are taken together, it shows that at least 93% of lands have been impacted by colonial development in ways that diminish, limit, or prevent exercise of TWN rights. This demonstrates that diverse and seemingly unrelated land-use decisions and impacts leave almost no places for TWN to freely access undisturbed lands and waters to practice constitutionally protected rights.
The map series starts with a map of historical Tsleil-Waututh Use and Occupancy. While this does not convey the full extent of our use, occupancy, and relationships within the territory, it gives a glimpse into some of the ways that Tsleil-Waututh people live in, around, and throughout Burrard Inlet. Tsleil-Waututh ancestors travelled, used, and held relationships with the entire territory, from the bottom of the inlet to the tops of the mountains. Our relationship with the lands and waters cannot be captured in a map, but for this exercise we must start from the perspective that Tsleil-Waututh people use the entire territory.
The remaining maps illustrate various land- and marine-based impacts throughout the Burrard Inlet catchment. These maps are based on publicly available data. They are not a comprehensive analysis of all the different ways that colonial developments impact TWN’s lands and rights. Still, the information draws a clear picture: there are almost no places left for TWN people to harvest or use their lands and waters.
We invite you to explore the map series and learn more about how development and land use affect TWN rights.
