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File
2003-WAS-021 Environmental
Appeal Board
Affidavit
of A. Sylvester #1
Affirmed
November 27, 2003
ENVIRONMENTAL
APPEAL BOARD
BETWEEN:
PENELAKUT FIRST NATION
and
ERIC WICKHAM and
SALT SPRING ISLAND RESIDENTS FOR RESPONSIBLE LAND USE
AND:
MINSTRY OF
WATER, LAND AND AIR PROTECTION and
SABLEFIN
HATCHERIES LTD.
AFFIDAVIT
I,
August Sylvester, Elder, of 1450 Longhouse Road, Kuper Island, BC,
DO SOLEMNLY, SINCERELY AND TRULY AFFIRM AND DECLARE THAT:
1.
I am a respected Elder from the Penelakut First
Nation, which is a Band pursuant to the Indian Act that makes up part of
the Coast Salish Nation. I am a speaker of Hul’qumi’num. As such, I have
personal knowledge of the facts and matters hereinafter deposed to except where
they are sworn to be on information and belief in which case I verily believe
them to be true.
2.
To be an Elder to our people, you have to know all
the laws and ways of the Coast Salish people. This knowledge includes the laws
of the longhouse, about children growing up, raising a family, hunting, fishing,
gathering and how to teach those children to be adults. Elders have to remember
Indian laws so that we may teach them to the youth in our community. If we do
not know the laws then we cannot become Elders in our community. In order to
become an Elder you must be able to carry on the laws and try not to change
them. It is important to keep all the laws and teachings the same all the
time. The Elders in our community now are the people that listened when the
old people of the past were talking. They learned the laws and traditions from
the old ones and it is our role in our community to pass this knowledge on.
3.
As an Elder in my community, it is also my family’s
responsibility to be the caretaker of the people who pass on. Only certain
families in our community are charged with this important responsibility. It is
difficult to explain what this responsibility means but it is sacred and it is a
great responsibility to be the caretakers of the gravesites.
4.
The Coast Salish people have used the waterways as
highways. They have been travelling throughout the Pacific Coast by canoe for a
very long time. They travelled to harvest foods for winter, such as fish. In
April, the spring salmon came and they knew the sockeye were coming so they
would take their canoes out to meet them. They would stop along the way and use
places to camp. Syuhe'mun (Walker Hook) was one of the traditional
places they would travel to and camp. They used to go to meet the salmon at
Pender Bluffs before travelling on the Fraser River to meet the salmon there.
5.
Syuhe'mun
is the location of a Coast Salish village. There used to be longhouses built
there. It is also the site of a substantial clam midden. We know that Coast
Salish people have used it for hundreds of years because the clam midden is so
deep.
6.
As a child my family continued to travel to
Syuhe'mun to camp while we were fishing. We would also buy wool and trade
salmon for canned goods. We would trade for apples, pears, canned vegetables
and other goods there. If we did not camp overnight there, we used to stay for
two to three hours talking and visiting approximately two to three times a
year. We usually travelled there in the springtime when the salmon came in.
7.
Syuhe'mun
hosts a graveyard in which many of my Coast Salish ancestors are buried.
8.
The Sablefin Hatcheries Ltd. (the “Hatchery”)
located their business on Syuhe'mun.
9.
The Hatchery has been given a waste management
approval to dig trenches and wells on Syuhe'mun to use the site for
sewage treatment.
10.
During the digging of the trenches and wells
approximately 9 human remains were found and my family was called to supervise
the removal of the bodies and their possessions; and to rebury the ancestors on
our territory.
11.
The remains of two people were pushed back into the
ground by the crew digging the trenches on Syuhe'mun. We were told the
Hatchery would need another permit to remove them, so they would be left there
and to the best of my knowledge they still remain there.
12.
Most of the exposed human remains were removed and
reburied at Kuper Island. My wife, Laura Sylvester and I witnessed the
removal. We attended the site for four days. We brought the remains back to
Kuper Island, where all but one of our ancestors were reburied.
13.
We reburied one of the bodies, a medicine woman, at
a different location at Syuhe'mun. We knew she was a medicine woman
because she was buried with red ochre. She was covered with obsidian and she
was found covering her eyes.
14.
Since I saw that the narrow, shallow trenches that
were dug had a number of bodies in them and I know that two ancestors remain
there, I believe there are many more human remains on the site of the proposed
effluent discharge.
15.
The people who removed the remains did not use
small archaeological instruments to remove the remains. They used a bobcat for
digging.
16.
The Hatchery is using the burial ground as a sewage
treatment plant. The use of the ancestral burial ground as a sewage treatment
site is very hurtful to our people. It is counter to all of our beliefs. Our
burial grounds are sacred to the Coast Salish. There are rules to follow at
gravesites. For example, you are not allowed to even spit on that ground. On
that ground you do not drag your feet or kick the rocks. If you had to dig in
that ground you first have to put on a handkerchief, red ochre and pray. This
is pursuant to our laws on how to treat all graveyards. Before we camp there we
have to ask permission. You can’t build a fire on it; you would have to build
the campfire on a beach or away from where the sacred site is.
17.
I know the First Nations have
sacred ground. They would look at a place and survey it pretty good before they
walk on it or walk around it. We still continue to do this today. I believe
the Hatchery ought to have known that this site was a First Nations burial
ground because of the large amount of clam midden present. I am outraged that
the digging did not stop once human remains were unearthed.
18.
Possessions belonging to the
ancestors that were buried with them were taken from the gravesites and given to
a museum in Victoria. There was one blade made out of bone, one anchor made out
of rock, one arrowhead and many pieces of obsidian glass.
It is a Coast Salish belief that
you should not remove items that are buried with the dead because it belongs to
the people that have passed on and they need it on their journey. Those
possessions should be reburied with the people. Even if they were buried with
gold we would not take the items because they belong to the people who have
passed on. We equate the taking of possessions from the ancestors after they
have passed with robbing the dead; those people who took the items are grave
robbers.
19.
It is a Coast Salish belief that
there are consequences for disturbing graves; bad things will happen to you and
your family. It is important to guard against this by showing respect to graves
and the ancestors.
20.
We, the Coast Salish,
would not and do not treat anyone’s burial ground the way the Hatchery
proposes. If we used a city graveyard for a sewage treatment site we would
probably be put in jail.
21.
It is imperative that Coast Salish gravesites are
treated with respect and honour. It is unimaginable that our sacred sites can
be treated with such wanton disrespect all in the name of the all-mighty dollar.
22.
I strongly question how
it is legal to desecrate any Coast Salish gravesite when it is clearly illegal
to desecrate non-Native gravesites.
23.
Using this sacred site as a sewage filtration
system is the ultimate dishonour to the Coast Salish history, traditions and
beliefs.
24.
I make this affidavit in support of the
Environmental Appeal Stay Application of Waste Management Approval AE-17356.
Affirmed before me this 27th
day of
November, 2003.
_________________________________
____________________________
A Commissioner for taking
Affidavits
AUGUST SYLVESTER
Within British
Columbia )
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