Twenty-eight experts, including several at Simon Fraser University, are calling on Canadian governments nationally to strengthen their accountability for First Nations sacred sites and develop effective ways of involving First Nations in stewarding these sites. The experts, members of the SFU-led Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) research team, have penned an international declaration on Canada’s and British Columbia’s legal and ethical obligations towards First Nations sites of cultural and spiritual significance.

IPinCH, established in 2008 with $2.5 million in funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), explores the rights, values and responsibilities of material culture, cultural knowledge and the practice of heritage research. The SFU-led project earned SSHRC’s first Partnership Impact Award in 2013.

The experts, from diverse fields—archaeologists, lawyers, anthropologists, human rights specialists, and scholars of cultural heritage among them—drew up the Declaration on the Safeguarding of Indigenous Ancestral Burial Grounds as Sacred Sites and Cultural Landscapes following a recent international gathering convened by IPinCH members.

“The declaration is a reminder of existing obligations and expectations regarding burial sites and sacred places,” says IPinCH director and archaeology professor George Nicholas.
Situations such as those at Grace Islet near Salt Sprin ...