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The Lil'Wat First Nation: The Olympic Divide
the Early Edition, CBC Radio, January 9, 2003
“That’s my grandfather’s house. It was handed down to my dad, and now I own it….”
Rosalin Sam stands in front of her log house in the old section of the Mount Currie reserve. The street is in a valley below the cloudy mountain tops, a few kilometers from Lilooet Lake. When Sam was growing up here, the area was barely accessible by the rest of the world. But things started to change when the highway was built 35 years ago. Now the reserve is an hour drive from the mega resort of Whistler. Sam fears if Whistler hosts the Olympic Games, Mount Currie will change dramatically.
“You see it’s calm and peaceful right now….” “It would be a lot more developed….More hotels would be built, more restaurants, more this, more that.”
Sam says members of the Mount Currie band haven’t benefited from the expansion of Whistler. Few aboriginals have gotten jobs there, and when they have, it’s usually cleaning hotel rooms or shoveling snow. Sam fears the Olympics will only bring more pressure to develop the area. To her, this means the destruction of the natural environment in her traditional territory. Sam has also been involved in a protest against building a ski resort at Melvin Creek, around an hour east of Mount Currie. In a referendum, over eighty per cent of Mount Currie band members opposed the development. Sam believes the band council should have also asked their opinion on the Olympics Games.
“If we had a referendum here, earlier, about Olympic bid, I think the chief and council would have found about the same amount would say no to Olympic bid. They didn’t themselves bring it to the people, as a council, which they should have done right from the very beginning and they didn’t.”
Last year, protesters at Melvin Creek and Sun Peaks sent a letter of complaint to the International Olympic Committee. They said the Olympic Games would stimulate BC’s skiing industry, leading to environmental damage on lands which still belong to native people.
However, the band council of the Lil’Wat Nation has written it’s own letter to the IOC endorsing the Olympic bid. They wrote the letter with the Squamish First Nation, which has also claims traditional use of the Whistler area.
“My name is trad name is Tamoosta. My English name is Lyle Leo. I’m the business development director for the Mt Currie band council.”
Lyle Leo sits in his office, across the highway from the old reserve. He’s on the board of the 2010 Bid Committee. He believes if native people oppose the games, they won’t receive any benefits from the event if it happens.
“If we move forward with a positive perspective and get involved, if we look for meaningful participation with real benefits, that will happen a lot sooner than sitting on the fence or maintaining a negative perspective and not doing anything.”
The Lil’Wat and Squamish band councils have negotiated a deal with the provincial government. If the Games are awarded to Whistler, the bands will get money to build a First Nations cultural centre. They will also receive some of the athletes’ housing after the games. The deal also includes work opportunities for native people.
“Within our communities and on reserve, there is still a large amount of social welfare dependency, so we’re looking at all areas that would benefit our community as far as employment, training and development….”
The Mount Currie reserve has an unemployment rate of over 50%. Leo believes the only way his people can improve their situation is by increasing their employment and entrepreneurial skills. This will enable them to support themselves and move off of the reserves.
However, Rosalin Sam’s vision of the future for her people is very different. She doesn’t picture her grandchildren moving to the city to pursue work opportunities. She wants them to be able to drink clean water from the nearby creek, to be able to pick berries and gather traditional medicines from the forest. She wants them to maintain their connection to the land, far away from giant ski resorts and luxury hotels. If the Olympic Games do come to Whistler, she fears her people will be trotted out for the opening ceremonies, and then forgotten yet again.
In Mount Currie, I’m Sarah Efron.