In 1887, the Dominion government took more than 800,000 hectares of unceded Indigenous land, and gave it to the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway Company as payment for building a 115-kilometre railway. Belonging to the Coast Salish and Nuu-Chah-nulth peoples, this belt of land was 32 kilometres wide, stretching from near Sooke in the south to Campbell River in the north.

This seizure and privatization of land, known as the E&N land grant, marked a major act of dispossession for Indigenous peoples. The land was quickly subdivided and sold off, mainly benefiting a few wealthy, politically connected settlers and companies. Over time, these "private forest lands" remained under industrial and private control, with companies holding large blocks of land originally belonging to Indigenous nations.

The ongoing struggle is about how private property rights have been repeatedly protected and enforced on this unceded Indigenous land, especially in opposition to efforts by Indigenous groups like the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group to reclaim and assert their rights. This history is part of a longer story of Indigenous resistance to the E&N land grants, and it highlights the ongoing disputes and issues around land ownership, forestry, and Indigenous title on Vancouver Island.

The work presented is part of a larger collaborative project that is inspired by, and in conversation with the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group, Estair Van Wagner, Sarah Morales and Brian Thom. Find more information here.

Location: Vancouver Island University - Cowichan Campus Theatre, Duncan

Registration: To help us track registrations please register through Eventbrite. If there are tickets available, you are welcome to just show up on August 13th. By donation at the door.

Recording: The presentation will be recorded and made available for viewing after the event.

Presenters:

Michael Ekers, Department of Human Geography, University of Toronto

Michael Ekers is a faculty member in the Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto. He has been researching and writing about the legacies of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway land grants for the last decade, with a focus on the extractive forestry practices specific to so-called private land and enduring exercise of Indigenous rights and title to the same belt of land. He teaches in the areas of environmental geography, political ecology and economy and agrarian studies. Prior to his life in academia, Ekers worked in the forestry industry for nine years, mainly in British Columbia.

Albie Charlie, Quw'utsun Elder

Shared by Stephanie Cottell