The Heiltsuk Nation has taken its push for oil spill liability reform and Indigenous cultural compensation international.
Heiltsuk Nation Chief Marilyn Slett is in London, England, from April 13 to 17 to meet with the United Nations International Maritime Organization in the Nation’s latest bid to draw attention to the lasting impacts of the Nathan E. Stewart oil spill on Heiltsuk territory more than a decade ago.
When the ship ran aground, it spilled more than 100,000 litres of fuel over the most productive clam-harvesting grounds, Slett told Black Press Media in a phone interview from London on Tuesday (April 14).
She said the Nation has been working, since the spill 10 years ago, to get the reforms and cultural compensation addressed.
Now, she and a Heiltsuk delegation have made the trek overseas to try their hand with the legal committee of the International Maritime Organization, which convened this week.
“We’re going to be providing an intervention that will speak to the urgent need for oil spill regimes to account for Indigenous cultural losses,” she explained.
“What we’ve encountered and the challenges that we’ve seen as Heiltsuk people is that the oil shipping regime does not account for that. It’s really a ‘show me your received economic loss’ and the losses that we’ve endured as people go far beyond those, you know, those losses definitely.”
Cultural losses, Slett said, include the intergenerational knowledge transmission.
“This is, for example, when elders teach Heiltsuk law and values to youth while harvesting. Well, this can no longer happen at the spill site because of the condition and the state that it’s in, which also leads to our erosion of our way of life.”
She said Heiltsuk’s way of life is about being out on the ground practicing their ways, but that has “fundamentally changed” since the spill.
“We’ve lost many opportunities for our young people to learn and grow as healthy citizens on our land and on our waters.”
Slett added that the spill site was also one of the most productive clam beds and other marine species and it was used for harvesting and ceremonies. Potlatches, she explained, are fundamental to Heiltsuk culture, and the food would come from the spill site.
“Young men used to go to the spill site and live off the land as part of their rite of passage, or initiation, into the potlatch system and that has stopped since the spill, since it’s been contaminated.”
The Nathan E. Stewart, a tug and barge, ran aground on a reef in the Seaforth Channel near Bella Bella on Oct. 13, 2016, spilling approximately 110,000 litres of diesel and another 2,000 litres of lubricants into the water and causing an estimated $12 million in damage to the tug and the barge it was towing.
A Transportation Safety Board investigation into the spill found that neither Transport Canada regulations nor the boat operators had done enough to handle the “inevitable” fatigue brought on by the crew’s schedule.
That investigation found that the second mate falling asleep while on watch was the likely cause behind the sinking.
“Like I said, it’s been 10 years, we certainly have concerns when Canada continues to sign MOUs with Alberta and the major project office, they’re looking at oil pipelines. Yet we have a spill from 10 years ago that has not been resolved, where Canada needs to come to the table and speak with Heiltsuk.”
Slett said Heiltsuk has already met with Transport Canada officials who are represented on the legal committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) during this trip. The delegation has also met with the secretary general of the organization.
“It was very interesting that the IMO is following the Nathan E. Stewart case, and they want to learn from Heiltsuk and the challenges that, you know, we’ve been facing, and also they want to know what the outcome is as well when we get there.”
She said Heiltsuk is specifically looking for redress for Indigenous cultural losses since the spill from the International Maritime Organization.
The Nation representatives are also planning to meet with other member countries throughout the week to further talk about the losses and the need for the regime to incorporate that redress.
That includes also meeting with other Indigenous groups from around the world, including from New Zealand and Mexico, to help raise awareness and connect with others who have a shared experience.