Who We Are

Dasiqox-Nexwagwez?an – “It is there for us” – is a land, water and wildlife Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) in traditional Tsilhqot’in territory, located about 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, BC

The area – which is separate and distinct from the lands the Supreme Court of Canada acknowledged Tŝilhqot’in title to in 2014 – includes about 300,000 hectares of wilderness and wildlife habitat, and borders a number of existing parks and protected areas. It is an expression of Indigenous governance initiated by the Xeni Gwet’in First Nations Government and Yuneŝit’in Government, and supported by the Tŝilhqot’in National Government.

In 2017, the Dasiqox Initiative was created to implement the Dasiqox vision and became a project on the MakeWay shared platform. The initiative is led by a Steering Committee made up of Xeni Gwet’in and Yunesit’in leadership.

Indigenous people have been excluded from our right to exercise responsibility and authority through land use decisions affecting our territories for generations. Despite this, Tŝilhqot’in leadership and communities have consistently maintained and protected our rights to care for the land – fighting to protect it during the Chilcotin War (1864) and from more recent threats, including hydroelectric development and industrial logging and mining.

Today, we’re emerging from this colonial context and are in a position to manage the land for ourselves, according to our values, and at a time when pressure from the forest and mining industries in the region have never been greater. Our people have a right and a responsibility to be actively involved in any decisions about how our traditional territory is managed. Internationally, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) affirms these rights, including the importance of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) where development is set to impact Indigenous peoples and our lands.

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