Bringing together First Nations, municipalities and regional districts, the Okanagan and Similkameen is now home to one of four collaborative initiatives of its kind across Canada to protect the country's water.
The signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Nov. 15 advanced a landmark process that will see a first-of-its-kind collaboration in B.C. between the First Nations of the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys and local governments across the region.
Elected leaders from both valleys came to Penticton for the signing, each of which was witnessed by syilx Elder calyx Richard Armstrong.
Students from the Outma Sqilx'w Cultural School on the Penticton Indian Band also attended, and sang the traditional Okanagan Song to start the ceremony's proceedings.
"I'm so happy that some of our children are here today to witness this," said Penticton Indian band Chief Greg Gabriel. "I'm not one that wants to sign a document that's just going to sit there, the work has to continue. There's so much work we have yet to do and even when our children take over our positions at the leadership table, the work will continue."
And there is an importance of having the next generation not only attend, but to participate.
"As First Nations, we're always thinking seven generations down the road and we need to make changes now, so our seventh generations down the road have water that we have today," said Lower Similkameen Indian Band Chief Keith Crow. "They should be able to swim in a clean Similkameen River. They should be able to participate in activities in the lakes and enjoy it. If we don't protect it now, they may not have that experience."
The conversation about collaborating began in 2019, and with the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement. The next step will be setting the terms of reference, which will begin at the collaborative leadership table's next meeting in Vernon in 2025.
The collaborative leadership table in the Okanagan and Similkameen is one of only four of its kind across Canada, and the model is based off of the initiative piloted in Manitoba in 2017.
The agreement and what those gathered in Penticton hope to achieve has already received attention, with remarks from a parliamentary secretary and special adviser for water, and from the senior government relations liaison to the United Nations Institute for Water Environment and Health Robert Sandford.
"On behalf of the UN please allow me to acknowledge and thank you all for your patience, fortitude and leadership foresight," said Sandford. "Please know that we will keep watching and wishing you every success with the historic new governance framework you have constructed from within."
"We hope to soon hold you up to the world as a lesson and example of how by working unselfishly together an entire region can, can create a better, fairer, more just and sustainable future for for all."
The memorandum identifies shared principles, goals, areas of common concern and next steps the framework for how the leaders will work together as neighbours and partners.
One potential possibility that was shared as a future product of the collaboration would be the region speaking with a single, louder voice to lobby for change from higher levels of government.
The process is only beginning with the signing of the memorandum and likely will continue far into the future, but for now the coming together is a being seen as a success.
"There is no finish line in leadership, in this work with water will be no finish line," said Osoyoos Indian Band Cheif Clarence Louie. "This may be the first time in our nation's history, ever since the only tribal council was formed in the late seventies that we've had elected leadership on the native and not the native side sign a document."
"I think it's the first time and our knowledge keepers, our ancestors would say it had to be water to bring us together. It was water that brought our people here to begin with thousands of years ago, and it's water that brought your ancestors here."
This agreement supports the frameworks and implementation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the BC Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).
