MY NAME IS DAVID MUNGO KNOX. I AM A HEREDITARY CHIEF OF THE KWAGU'L PEOPLE
Come and sit with us before you come for the land.
Our door is open. There is a proper way to enter
This is not empty
land.
Governments are talking about critical minerals.
Companies are looking at maps. Investors see copper and gold.
We see our homeland.
Some places may be open to discussion. Some never will be.
That is not something money can change.
Our villages are here.
Our ancestors are here.
Our rivers and salmon are here.
Our cedar and medicines are here.
Our hunting places are here.
Our burial and sacred places are here.
Our language is here.
That is protocol. That is responsibility. That is respect.
Then we can talk.
Come early. Before the money is spent, and before promises are made to shareholders about our
homeland.
There is a proper way to come
into someone else's home.
01 Knock. 02 Introduce yourself. 03 Sit down. 04 Listen. 05 Learn where you are.
Consultation is not consent.
A permit or mineral claim is not permission.
Money already spent
Does not create consent
KNOW THE DIFFERENCE
A meeting is not agreement
WHAT ALREADY STANDS
Our people have already spoken.
1851
The Douglas Treaty
Our ancestors did not make a Treaty with the Crown so
governments could spend the next 175 years deciding for
us. It has to mean something when forests are cut, when
roads are built, and before anyone tells investors these
lands are open for business.
It is still here. So are we.
Our Land Use Plan
FROM OUR PEOPLE
Our women, our Old People and our youth came together and brought their knowledge of the rivers, the animals,the old places and the places that must be protected.
It is not something to put on a shelf.
Before you put
money into our
homeland, ask.
01 Has the company actually sat with Kwagu'ł?
02 Do they understand our Treaty?
03 Have they looked at our Land Use Plan?
04 Do they know where the sacred places are?
05 Have they spoken with our Guardians, our Elders
and our leadership?
06 Do they know whether our people have agreed?
If a company cannot answer these questions, it does not knowenough about where you are investing.
Maya'x̱ala
MEANS RESPECT
Respect is not something you say. You show it.
Sometimes it means changing your plans. Sometimes
it means waiting. Sometimes the answer is no.