27 Jun T’aaq-wiihak, Implementing Nuu-chah-nulth Fishing Rights
In 2009, the BC Supreme Court ruled that five Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations have an Aboriginal right to fish and sell all species of fish from their territories on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. The court also ruled that Canada’s fisheries policies and regulations infringed those Aboriginal rights and directed Canada and the Nations to negotiate new fisheries regime that would accommodate the five Nations. Today, despite years of negotiations, these new fisheries have not advanced beyond the demonstration fisheries stage and First Nations continue to have very little access to resources in our territories.
This video, T’aaq-wiihak, Implementing Nuu-chah-nulth Fishing Rights, presented by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and Uu-a-thluk discusses the challenges faced by Nuu-chah-nulth fishers and how implementing T’aaq-wiihak fisheries would benefit both Nuu-chah-nulth fishers and the surrounding community.