Current Events > Vancouver indigenous group is building, building, building

(+) Yeah! (+)

Found this story

https://macleans.ca/society/sen%cc%93a%e1%b8%b5w-vancouver/

In 2002, Canada returns some land back to First Nations / Indigenous tribe (Squamish Nation and others in this case) close to downtown Vancouver. Local neighbors were thrilled, perhaps assuming that their Squamish neighbors would go back to "indigenous ways of living".

It turns out, the tribe was biding their time until they got zoning exceptions from the government. Now they are partnering with a real estate development firm to building a multi-billion dollar housing complex with over 10,000 market rate units. Indigenous people rightly decided that they are going to sovereignly develop the fuck out of that land and make billions along the way.

The pushback from some people is hilarious

Theres also been a persistent sense of disbelief that Indigenous people could be responsible for this futuristic version of urban living. In 2022, Gordon Price, a prominent Vancouver urban planner and a former city councillor, told Gitxsan reporter Angela Sterritt, When youre building 30, 40-storey high rises out of concrete, theres a big gap between that and an Indigenous way of building.

In 2022, city councillor Colleen Hardwick said of that project, How do you reconcile Indigenous ways of being with 18-storey high-rises? (Hardwick, it goes without saying, is not Indigenous.) MST is also planning an even bigger development, called Senw in the Squamish language and x in Halkomelem. Better known as Jericho Lands, it will include 13,000 new homes on a 90-acre site. At a city council meeting this January, a stream of non-Indigenous residents turned up to oppose it. One woman speculated that the late Tsleil-Waututh Chief Dan George would be outraged at the monstrous development on sacred land.

To Indigenous people themselves, though, these developments mark a decisive moment in the evolution of our sovereignty in this country. The fact is, Canadians arent used to seeing Indigenous people occupy places that are socially, economically or geographically valuable, like Senw. After decades of marginalization, our absence seems natural, our presence somehow unnatural. Something like Senw is remarkable not just in terms of its scale and economic value (expected to generate billions in revenue for the Squamish Nation). Its remarkable because its a restoration of our authority and presence in the heart of a Canadian city.

NIMBYs
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/81161d33.jpg

Fuck yeah.

How dare they use capitalism to their advantage!

Fucking people.

Good for them

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/dc0cac7a.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3a94be73.jpg

Those dudes are like "They're using our weapons against us"

lol

If they do it right and for their people. Let them.

Proud to be Canadian seeing that. Let them cook. Let them build. Hell yeah!

Hell ya.. Go them, Build up and build your wealth

Screw all the NIMBY A-holes

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

You and I both know the answer to this.