Camas Nullius?

How Beacon Hill Park Came to Be Imposed on a Pillar of the lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples' Food and Inter-National Trade Economy

Abstract

This article considers how a public park – Beacon Hill Park, in the city of Victoria – came to be imposed on the place known to the lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples as míqәn, which served as a “breadbasket” to and as a cornerstone of their inter-national trade economy. It examines why míqәn was not set aside as a reserve for the lək̓ʷəŋən, despite treaties promises to reserve for them their cultivated or enclosed fields. It finds that two key obstacles stood in the way: (a) Eurocentric assumptions that only European agriculture properly constituted cultivation, and that only true cultivation could provide the basis for ownership of land, with all other land being considered “waste” and available for the taking; and (b) the speculative self-interest of James Douglas, Hudson’s Bay Company chief factor and governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island. It considers what the imposition of a public park has meant for the lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples’ ongoing ability to engage in the cultivation practices that made qwłaʔ(әlʔ), also known as camas, their second most highly traded food resource after salmon. A public park is a unique form of enclosure, different than communally held land. It is considered property owned by a public government in which natural resources are reserved primarily for the leisure of the public, not for sustenance. The imposition of the park has seriously impacted the lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples’ economy on an intergenerational level. Their generation of abundant qwłaʔ(әlʔ) should be considered cultivation, and míqәn should be returned to the lək̓ʷəŋən for their use and jurisdiction.