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Tahltan leader takes senior role in national conservation group

After years of fighting to protect the Sacred Headwaters, the birthplace of the Stikine, Nass and Skeena rivers in northwest B.C., members of the Tahltan Nation gathered on the land to prepare for a meeting with mining company executives.
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Annita McPhee

After years of fighting to protect the Sacred Headwaters, the birthplace of  the Stikine, Nass and Skeena rivers in northwest B.C., members of the  Tahltan Nation gathered on the land to prepare for a meeting with mining  company executives. The nation had just passed a unanimous resolution  to protect the area from developments like a proposed open-pit coal mine  that, if built, could cause irreparable damage to the watershed.  Elders, matriarchs and community members were sitting around a fire,  cooking moose meat and bannock, and planning what to say to the company.  It was a serious conversation, but everyone cherished the opportunity  to be together on the land.  

“We were  laughing and we were sharing and it just felt really good to be with  everybody, to be with our people,” recalls Annita McPhee, who was  president of the Tahltan Central Government at the time. “It reminded  me, this is what’s important, this is what I want to keep doing, what I  want our people to keep doing.”

She paused, remembering, and laughed as she added, “I really love eating moose meat.”

The proposed coal mine wasn’t the first threat to the Sacred Headwaters,  also known as Klabona. The Tahltan Nation fought for nearly a decade to  prevent Shell Canada from developing a 4,000-square-kilometre coalbed  methane project, achieving success in 2012 when B.C. announced a  permanent ban on oil and gas exploration on the territory. McPhee  credits unity to the success of the Tahltan movement to protect Klabona  from industrial development and said alliances between First Nations and  conservation groups are key to ensuring Indigenous-led protection of  land, water and wildlife.

McPhee,  who has a degree in law and social work, served three terms as president  of the Tahltan Central Government, earning several accolades for  conservation and community work.  

Last September, McPhee seemed poised to be the NDP candidate for Stikine in the upcoming provincial election. Under the NDP's Equity Mandate, when a male candidate does not seek re-eleciton - NDP MLA Doug Donaldson chose not to run again in Stikine - the party rules dictate that a person of an equity-seeking group, such as a woman or an Indigenous person, be chosen as the next candidate. Instead, the NDP installed Nathan Cullen, the former NDP MP for Stikine-Bulkley Valley, as the candidate and he won the seat in the October provincial eleciton.

McPhee moved on. In December, she became executive director of the B.C. chapter of the  Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. She is the first Indigenous  executive director of a chapter of the 58-year-old charity. 

The Narwhal spoke with McPhee about her new role and the importance of Indigenous leadership in conservation. 

How has your childhood and your connection with Tahltan territory and culture informed your work in conservation?

When my  dad would go hunting and come back with a moose, my dad would say, “We  don’t waste any of this. We will make sure we use everything on the  moose. We use the hide to make clothes, we eat the meat.” 

A lot of  people would throw away the moose organs — we don’t waste that either,  we eat them. That’s the way that we’ve been taught, that we don’t waste  anything. 

My dad  always told me how important the land was to Tahltan people, and he  taught me about Aboriginal Rights and Title at a very young age. He told  me about how we are fighting for our land and how it’s always been our  land. 

What does it mean to you to be the first Indigenous person to lead a Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society chapter?

I don’t  take this position lightly. I really hope to be a bridge, a connection  between environmental groups and the government and Indigenous people.

As  Indigenous people, we’ve been protecting land and animals since time  immemorial. We’ve been stewards of the land since time immemorial.

I’m really excited about this opportunity. I work with beautiful people who truly  care about conservation — they care about the animals, they care about  the ocean, they care about the land. I wanted to be here because I felt  like their values align with [the values of] Indigenous people. I think  through that alignment, in that collaboration, we’re going to be  successful in protecting areas for generations to come. I honestly  believe that.

For me, as  an Indigenous woman leading a major environmental organization, I  really hope to bring those voices out … that wouldn’t have been heard  before.

We have to  be more proactive in protecting our land and animals and I feel like  I’m in an organization that helps to do that. It’s refreshing.

Why is Indigenous leadership important for finding solutions to protect land and wildlife?

Our  people, we know what we want to see. We know all of the sacred places on  our land. Our Elders, they know where we pick berries, they know where  places are really important for fishing camps. There’s places that we  know that other people couldn’t know about, or know why [they’re]  important to us. 

Indigenous  people are best suited to protect the land, or to know how to protect  the land, because they’ve been living on this land, protecting this  land, for thousands of years. That intimate knowledge is so valuable. 

The conservation movement has been criticized as a new colonial frontier.  Conservation, from a settler perspective, is often seen as preserving  “wilderness” and keeping out all human influence. But that  ignores the  Indigenous worldview, which is that humans are part of the ecosystem.  Can you speak to this tension and how you’re working to address that in  your new role?

I think  there is a narrative around conservation being colonialist, but I don’t  believe that all conservation movements are like that. It’s true that  sometimes conservation used to [be] a movement where protected areas  would be [places] where nobody could utilize them. 

But I feel  hopeful and positive because that’s changing. And it’s going to change  more over time. Before you couldn’t utilize it, now you’re able to hunt  and fish in that area and at the same time keep industrial development  out. 

And I  think there’s a genuine interest in working with Indigenous people and  collaborating on Indigenous-led conservation. We all truly need to work  together. We are in a deep biodiversity crisis, we’re in a water crisis,  we’re in a climate crisis. 

We really need to rely on Indigenous teachings in order to help protect these beautiful lands and waters.

Canada is committed to protecting 25 per cent of land and water by  2025 and 30 per cent by 2030. How will your work at Canadian Parks and  Wilderness Society help to meet these goals?

The  success of conservation can only be achieved through Indigenous consent.  When we consider the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of  Indigenous People, we must consider so many underlying factors such as  jurisdiction and Rights and Title of Indigenous People. I honestly  believe that protection cannot happen without First Nations  participation. 

And it’s not just consultation, it’s consent. 

I want to  ensure that First Nations are a partner or part of this process from the  beginning. I’m really honoured that I’ve built a lot of valuable  friendships and relationships and networks with Indigenous People across  B.C. and across Canada. I’m hoping to bring that knowledge into CPAWS.

You have a background in social work — what are some of the psychological benefits of conservation? 

My friend Chief Marie Quock would say, “I go up to the Klappan and it’s my spa.”

Every time  I go back out there, it’s really healing for my heart and for my  spirit. It brings me back to the connection [with] the land where I’m  from. Anytime we can connect with our people and be out on the land,  it’s such a beautiful feeling.

I just  really like to see peace in people’s lives and also with our Earth. It’s  always been a huge passion of mine to protect our spaces and places  where we can find peace. 

In your view, what are the biggest threats facing B.C.’s land, water and wildlife?

If all the industrial development were allowed to happen at one time, what would that look like? That’s my biggest concern.

I’m really concerned about our wild salmon, particularly sockeye. And I worry about the potential devastation to our rivers and the impact from mining. 

I’m not anti-mining; I’m pro-salmon.

I think the most important thing is looking to the future as opposed to looking  at what’s right in front of us right now. If we had all [the operating  and proposed] mines going at once, it would benefit people economically  but it would only be temporary. And what would happen afterwards, after  everything’s developed and everything’s gone? What would we have left? 

If there’s  anything I could say about the experience of protecting the headwaters,  [it’s that] it required a lot of balance. It required a lot of unity  and trust amongst the people and also having alliances with NGOs and  nations. It takes a lot of people and a lot of work to protect an area.  There are many, many different layers. 

Another thing I would say is you have to be patient. That’s  difficult when you’re balancing economic interests and interests in the  land and the water. What it really comes down to is a balance of  values. What do we value? 

What are the most important issues and priorities you’ll be working on this year?

The  priority is to work with Indigenous People on Indigenous-led  conservation. We want to connect with First Nations who have protected  areas in their territories and to connect with Indigenous People where  protected areas are planned in the coming years.

We need to  really focus on coming together. We want to be able to have these  conversations and to see protection where we’ve never seen protection.  And hear the priorities of Indigenous people when it comes to  protection, of course [also] working with the public and working with  governments. But at the forefront, we want to work with Indigenous  People because conservation in the future [is] impossible without  working with Indigenous People. We need that collaboration.

And they know what the priorities are — they always have.

This interview has been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.