Porcupine and Other Stories: Legal Relations in Secwépemcúlecw

Abstract

For thousands of years, Secwépemc laws (like other Indigenous laws) related to the Secwépemc lands, or “Secwépemcúlecw,” developed and were learned and practiced within a context where the personhood of Secwépemc individuals, as well as animals and the earth itself, was not in dispute. Nor was the existence, legitimacy or efficacy of Secwépemc laws. All of these crucial legal relationships still exist, and are ongoing. However, for the past 150 years or so, Secwépemc laws, and people, have lived in relation to something quite distinct — a set of laws that were jurispathic in nature —laws that would not recognize or tolerate any other law but themselves. The Secwépemc Nation’s resilience and perseverance in upholding and revitalizing Secwépemc laws in the face of this colonial disregard, attests to their strength and enduring value. In this article, the authors discuss the purpose, as well as some of the methods, outcomes and limits of the Secwépemc Lands and Resources Laws project produced in collaboration with the University of Victoria Indigenous Law Research Unit. They then examine present interactions between Secwépemc and state land and resources laws operating within Secwépemcúlecw, including the challenges and limited opportunities that exist within the way these legal and political relations are currently structured and implemented on the ground. Finally, they draw on the Secwépemc “Story of Porcupine” to suggest a constructive way forward towards a more mutually respectful Nation-to-Nation relationship between the Secwépemc people and the Canadian State.