A dispute simmering between the corporation developing an inland port project in Ashcroft and the Bonaparte Indian Band boiled over into the public eye yesterday.
Members of the Bonaparte Indian Band walked to the offices of the Ashcroft Terminal expansion project, demanding to see an ancient ceremonial graveyard, and ancestral remains they estimate to be thousands of years old.
The bones are being stored in two cardboard boxes in an Atco trailer.
With RCMP observing at times, a ceremony to honour their ancestors was done before representatives of the Ashcroft Terminal, owned by Singapore-based PSA International, gave band members access to the trailer, followed by an escorted visit to the ancestral burial grounds first discovered about 4 years ago.
Off and on throughout the day, the private Facebook group of the Bonaparte Indian Band livestreamed the ceremony, and parts of discussions with Ashcroft Terminal Chief Commercial Officer Kleo Landucci.
Bonaparte Indian Band CEO Sean Bennett tells the NL Noon Report the band has concerns about what they call a lack of independent oversight over archeological discoveries.
“We have had technicians down there that – they get called up, you know we’re going to dig here on Thursday, can you provide some bodies to monitor and we do that but it’s really ad-hoc” he says. “There’s no real kind of set-up that allows the Bonaparte First Nation a kind of independent overseer of what is taking place down there.”
The terminal’s chief corporate officer Kleo Landucci also says the corporation has an internal policy to always include First Nations in archeology.
“Companies that we’ve hired are registered archeologists companies, third-party contractors. And as well, we have an in-house archeologist who works with us. But it’s a collaborative effort, and it includes First Nations. It has up until now, and it will continue to. And it includes, obviously, all under the authority and the approval processes governed by the province of B.C.”
Bonaparte elder Roger Porter says the ancestral remains should be put back where they were found.
“I think those remains have to be put back right away” he says. “Not taken out and put in cardboard boxes or whatever, and we have to fence that off.”
The Ashcroft Terminal says it’s proposed a site to the Bonaparte Indian Band for where to rebury those remains, east of Barnes Creek near an old farm road. It had sent an email to Bonaparte staff six weeks ago, and most recent correspondence indicates the band has not responded.
“I’m not really super clear on the specifics of why anyone is upset with anything we’ve done. And that is something that is very bothersome,” Landucci says.
“Because unfortunately, when we get a letter from a lawyer describing who and how we’re allowed to communicate back with a First Nations band, it’s unfortunate we can’t have an open dialogue. But we’re looking forward to changing that.”
(Photo: Facebook: Bonaparte First Nation)
– with files from Colton Davies
