Belonging with Indigenous Lands

In the places we call home, how do we belong? Belonging with Indigenous Lands examines the ?a?uuk?i?athò (Tla-o-qui-aht) Tribal Parks Allies program and its reception by settler communities on western Vancouver Island. In 1984, the ?a?uuk?i?athò First Nation and settler allies mobilized to protect the watersheds of Meares Island and create one of Canada’s first Indigenous-managed park systems. Since then, tourism in Tofino has become an economic juggernaut, but ?a?uuk?i?athò have not equitably benefited despite disproportionately bearing the costs of stewarding the land and waters. Therefore, in 2018, the Nation created the Tribal Parks Allies program, asking tourism-related businesses to contribute financially to ecosystem maintenance, cultural revitalization, and Indigenous well-being initiatives. Community responses ranged from enthusiastic to resistant. In both English and nuuc?aanul, Indigenous and settler contributors unpack competing conceptualizations of sovereignty, social contracts, land, and time. In the process, they illuminate the ways we understand place-based belonging and our relation to those with whom we share our homes.