4 — Sunday, Nov. 15, 1982 - North Shore News Defining Qwa- THE BATTLE of the Carmanah is of course a long way from over, but a rather interesting twist has developed which the reader may have missed in the brief flurry of coverage that occurred back in August when a young man was arrested while dangling from a bridge during a protest against logging by Fletcher Challenge and MacMillan Bloedel in the Walbran Valley. The fellow who was arrested, Christopher Parry, 25, insisted that the RCMP had no right to grab him because he was a landed immigrant in a free aboriginal na- tion. The judge didn’t buy this and shipped Parry off to the Van- couver Island Regional Correction Centre for failing to promise to obey an injunction to remain at least 30 kilometres away from Block 15 of Tree Farm Licence 46. You can be forgiven if the name of the Independent State of Qwa-Ba-Diwa does not im- mediately leap to mind from your geography lessons. But wait for it. Constitutional kerfuffle aside, its members have already taken the first step toward negot.ating self-government: namely, proclaiming their in- dependence. The chief of the Qwa-Ba-Diwa Indian band, James Knighton, claims that his family members are hereditary rulers of the entire Carmanah and Walbran valleys. According to his brother, Peter Knighton (a.k.a. ‘‘His-tah-too- kwa’’), a speaker for the band, both oral and written history show that the Qwa-Ba-Diwa have been guardians of the two valleys for at least 1,000 years. Part of the written evidence comes from Environment Canada ethnohistorian Eugene Arima, who acknowledges that the Qwa-Ba-Diwa were recognized as an independent nation in the carly 1900s by the Department of In- dian Affairs. In 1914, however, [ndian agents doing a head-count of natives on Vancouver Island were unable to tell the difference between the various language groups. The Qwa-Ba-Diwa, who speak a Ditidaht dialect, were lumped in by the white men as being part of the Ditidaht band, and eventually forced to move onto the Ditidaht reserve at Nitinat Lake. The effects on the two bands of being shoved into each other’s embrace was predictably unhappy, after a millenium of living their own lives. Until the 1970s, the Knighton family was banned from Ditidaht politics on the grounds that they were outsiders. Finally, a Knighton was invited to run as a band councillor. After his death, one of his sons, Peter, became a councillor. It was beginning to look almost multicultural until a 1989 Nuu- Chah-Nuulth Tribal Council meeting when Peter Knighton was snubbed because he was not a Dididaht by birth. At that point, the family decid- ed that enough was enough. Special Needs Day Care Community Forum to respond tothe Ministry of Social Services | Special Needs Day Care Discussion Paper Monday, November 23, 1992 6:45pm - 9:30pm Lonsdale Quay Hotel 123 Carrie Cates Court North Vancouver Endeavour and Discovery Rooms Bob Hunter STRICTLY PERSONAL Rather than face the rest of their lives as second-class citizens on someone else’s reserve, they would try to reassert their sovereignty over the traditional homelands from which they had been banished. Early this summer, the Qwa- Ba-Diwa Information Centre cpened in Vancouver in a first ef- fort at establishing ‘‘diplomatic relations’’ with Canada. The Knightons say they never fora moment relinquished their traditional lands. To this day, they insist the Qwa-Ba-Diwa Nation extends from the ‘‘heights of land’’ on the Cheewaht River in the north to Port Renfrew in the south, to Cowichan Lake in the east, a vast tract that includes the disputed Carmanah and Walbran water- sheds. {n their long drawn-out battle to save Vancouver Island’s old- growth forests, environmental groups have tended to shy away from the sovercignty issue, al- though the Environmental Youth Alliance did stage a logging blockade in Qwa-Ba-Diwa ter- ritory. Nobody came, which illustrates the point. Most tree-huggers favor legal protection of the rainforest by provincia! and federal govern- ments whose fundamental authority native groups reject. it’s a tough one to play down the middle. The only other eco-group to back the Qwa-Ba-Diwa claim with more than tacit support has been the somewhat mysterious Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an offshoot of Friends of the Car- manah/Walbran. Christopher Parry, the fellow who got arrested dangling from a bridge in the Waibran trying to interfere with Fletcher Challenge and MacBlo logging operations, says he’s not part of the ELF. Rather, he is a ‘‘protected citi- zen’’ of the Qwa-Ba-Diwa Na- tion, and as such should not be subject to arrest by Canadian authorities. Parry’s case comes before the B.C. Supreme Court on Dec. 10. He might have spent the entire period from his arrest on Aug. 31 until his upcoming court appear- ance in jail, except that after serv- ing three weeks he changed his mind and opted to promise to obey the injunction. This didn’t change his feelings, of course. **What’s at stake,’’ he says, “‘is the way we Canadians define the very idea of independence and sovereignty. “*For the Qwa-Ba-Diwa, it’s been as though the U.S. had sud- denly decided to take over Canada and make it the 51st state, forcing us all to go move somewhere else so they could log.’’ He doesn’t expect to be sent back to the slammer when he reappears in court, for the simple reason that the Crown probably doesn't want to make an issue of the Qwa-Ba-Diwa land claims case. The court will likely consider the three weeks’ time Parry has done as sufficient punishment, providing he stays away from the Walbran Valley. It is not quite so easy for the courts to deal with the Qwa-Ba- Diwa themselves. They have no piace to go. And, in ineir minds and hearts, no reason to go any- where anyway. 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Mark Osachoff 661-7433 ScotiaMcLeod Tasted neumentade ei 1aet (Please help me choose the right path) Join our Public Meeting Let’s establish the right education policies for the 21st Century Provincial Liberal Policy Forum Saturday, November 21/92 ipm-4pm Cedardale Centre 595 Burley Drive, West Van Sponsored by the North Shore Provincial Liberal Ridings With: Jeremy Dalton MLA, , Liberal Education Critic Lynn Stephens MLA, Liberal Business Critic Join our outstanding expert panelists — floor discussion and briefs welcome Please attend — your future depends on it! For more info call Murray Lount 925-1260