For decades, members of the Lyackson First Nation have been spread across Vancouver Island, unable to live on their reserve due to the lack of essential infrastructure. Now, thanks to a historic land acquisition and collaboration with Cowichan Tribes and the Province of B.C., Lyackson is preparing to build a new village, one that will finally allow its members to come together as a community. In this interview, Hereditary Chief Shanna Thomas shares the vision for this new home and what it means for the future of Lyackson.

Listen to the interview at cbc.ca, or read the transcript below.

Transcript:

Kathryn Marlow

For decades, the 220 or so members of Lyackson First Nation have been spread across Vancouver Island. They can’t live on their reserve on Valdez Island because the government never built infrastructure there. But now, the nation has some new land and a plan to create a village where members will be able to live as one community. Lyackson Hereditary Chief Shana Thomas joins us now with more. Good afternoon!

Shana Thomas

Good afternoon! How are you doing?

Kathryn Marlow

I’m fine, thanks. How are you?

 

Shana Thomas

I’m great, thank you.

 

Kathryn Marlow

For people who aren’t familiar, can you first tell us a little bit about who the Lyackson are?

 

Shana Thomas

Absolutely! The Lyackson are part of the historic Quw’utsun nation, which includes Cowichan Tribes, Penelakut, Lyackson, and Stz’uminus. Our village sites were out on Lyackson Island, as we refer to it, but others call it Valdez Island. We also had village sites on the main Vancouver Island.

 

Kathryn Marlow

I mentioned in the introduction that Lyackson Island doesn’t have infrastructure. How did that happen?

 

Shana Thomas

Yeah, you know, through generations, Canada just never put infrastructure out on the reserve lands. Our community lived on those lands and was able to sustain itself through harvesting, sea resources, and a well. But over time, the community needed more infrastructure, including electricity, emergency response services, and reliable transportation. Canada refused to provide the necessities of life for our community to reside on our reserves and told us we needed to find other land on the main Vancouver Island because that would be more cost-efficient for them.

 

Kathryn Marlow

So you’ve done that. Tell me about the land.

 

Shana Thomas

You know, this is such an amazing opportunity, and we cannot say enough in terms of our appreciation to Cowichan Tribes—our relatives, our kinship there—as well as to Premier Eby and Minister Murray Rankin for their commitment to Lyackson. By partnering with Cowichan Tribes and the province, we’ve been able to acquire 312 hectares of private forestry land near the Scotts Provincial Park area. Through this collaboration, we’re about to establish a new Lyackson village, which is just amazing for our community.

 

Kathryn Marlow

And what will it take to create a village where, right now, there isn’t anything?

 

Shana Thomas

We’ve got to hire a master planner. We’ve got someone lined up, and we’ve got to meet with them to finalize things. But we need to have a master-planned community. Cowichan Tribes and Lyackson signed a memorandum of understanding on how we are going to divide the parcel equally for both communities, so we have to complete that work. We then have to submit an Addition to Reserve application to Canada. Once all of those things are done, we’ll begin to break ground and start developing our community.

 

Kathryn Marlow

When do you hope to have the new village established?

 

Shana Thomas

We have a very aggressive timeline, and we are anticipating that we will be able to announce the new village site by this time next year.

 

Kathryn Marlow

Wow! And what will it be like to call your members, who are spread out, and say, “Hey, we have a place to live now, a place where we can all be together”?

 

Shana Thomas

You know, this is the most exciting part. We have so many of our members who have diligently remained Lyackson. They had the opportunity to transfer to other communities over the years—over the generations—and they stayed Lyackson. To be able to help our community members return home, we’ve got a few things we’re going to have to do.

We need a land code, for example, so that we have a transparent process in which our members can begin to build homes, rent homes, and develop the property. We will also be incorporating a financial administrative law so that we have good governance. Then, we will put that call out to our members, and our members will gradually return home. There couldn’t be anything more exciting as a hereditary chief than seeing our members coming together in this way.

 

Kathryn Marlow

Once you’ve done that, you still have several reserves on Lyackson Island. What will happen with them?

 

Shana Thomas

You know, the Lyackson Mustimuhw are so grounded and connected to Lyackson Island. That is where our creation story is. Our name, Lyackson, is in our language. In English, it means “the top of a Douglas fir tree,” and it links back to our creation story. So we’re deeply connected, and we intend to fully maintain that connection and our stewardship and authority over our homelands on Lyackson Island.

 

Kathryn Marlow

Will it be beneficial, though, to have the community on Vancouver Island, on a bigger island, where people might still be able to drive to work in the Cowichan Valley and things like that?

 

Shana Thomas

Absolutely! Coming together on Vancouver Island is going to be so important for our members. We have a very diverse group of community members with various levels of education and expertise. We have nurses, teachers, a VP of Indigenous programs at the University of Victoria, social workers—so many of our community members are doing great work in and around not just our community, but other communities as well.

Having a village site that is accessible year-round, with water, electricity, and Wi-Fi, is going to be really exciting for our community. We definitely need to have that here on Vancouver Island because, simply put, out on Lyackson Island, we’re not able to access our community land base on an annual basis. We don’t have a breakwater, we don’t have a marina, and we don’t have a safe way to access our community year-round. So a Vancouver Island village site is definitely what we need to ensure that our community members can maintain their standard of living, sustain employment, and come and go in a way that promotes community growth and wellness.

 

Kathryn Marlow

Well, Shana, it’s so exciting to hear about this, and I look forward to following along and hearing how the village development goes.

 

Shana Thomas

Amazing! Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity to share with you.

 

Kathryn Marlow

All right. You have a good rest of your day.

 

Shana Thomas

You too. Thanks.

 

Kathryn Marlow

Shana Thomas is the hereditary chief of the Lyackson First Nation.