Members of the Lil’wat and N’Quatqua First Nations held a ceremony, briefly blocking Highway 99 near Pemberton, B.C., on Friday to voice frustration with the province’s plan to limit an upcoming closure of Joffre Lakes Park next month.
The park, known as Pipi7íyekw to the Líl̓wat Nation and N’Quatqua, will close to the public from Sept. 2 to Oct. 3 to allow the nations time to harvest and carry out cultural and spiritual practices.
The nations had sought a two-month closure, while the province says the one-month period “balances cultural practices, conservation goals and public access to the park.”
The nations say the province’s decision ignores their rights and title to the territory.
“They’re not honouring or hearing our voices,” Lil’wat Nation lands and resources coordinator Roxanne Joe said, calling the move “a huge disrespectful action.”
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“It goes to show time and time again they are not putting out title and rights at the forefront of any land use or recreation.”
Joe said the move represents a failure of the province’s duty to consult First Nations, adding that the part was created in the first place without the consultation or blessing of the two nations whose territory it is within.
The First Nations, however, aren’t the only ones accusing the NDP government of failure.
BC Conservative Opposition critic for indigenous relations and reconciliation Scott McInnes said the province had “fumbled” the issue around Joffre lakes through its “ideological pursuit of reconciliation.”
“Now it’s at the point where we … have two nations that are very upset because the expectation has been built up for them that they have unilateral control over access to the public park and, again, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act really sets the groundwork for this type of divisive reconciliation to happen from this NDP,” he said.
“There has to be a way where both the Lil’wat and the N’Quatqua have access to the park to practice their constitutionally-protected rights but which also is an exclusionary to the public who also has the right to access that park.”
The park was previously closed this year for three weeks, starting April 25, then for two weeks in June.
The closures stem from a 2024 agreement between the province and the nations that aimed to protect the park’s natural ecology while giving time to the nations to engage in cultural practices.
That followed the two nations moving proactively in the summer of 2023, asserting their rights and title to harvest in the area, and pressing the province to close the park for most of September that year.
The park, located between Pemberton and Lillooet, has become a massive tourist attraction — in part because of its Instagrammable views.
A provincial report found that there were nearly 200,000 visitors in 2019, an increase of 222 per cent from nine years earlier.
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