Anti-Colonial Science: A Course Journal. Vol. 3, 2025. https://ojs.library.dal.ca/acs/

Inheritance and Homelessness in Dialogue with Vancouver’s Parks

Rosie Pryce-Digby

Sto:lo Elder Lee Maracle’s chapter “Conversation 10: Appropriation” from her book, My Conversations with Canadians, exposes White settlers’ appropriation of Indigenous stories, songs, and knowledge as direct, intentional theft of birthright inheritance. Because oral traditions exist in European cultures only as folklore, there was no recognition of the cultural, scientific, and epistemic authority that Indigenous oral traditions hold.1 Maracle highlights how knowingly, and unknowingly White settlers robbed Indigenous children of their birthright by writing down stories and knowledge. This inevitably led to the settlers capitalizing off of their plunder. However, in more recent years, in line with efforts of Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous birthright and familial ownership have been coopted and are in the process of being filtered into Canadian intellectual property law. Maracle interrogates the Euro-Canadian urge to treat Indigenous intergenerational knowledge as equivalent to European colonial private property. The two are not equals.

The author’s examination of inheritance and intellectual property is highly relevant to my family and sense of place. My father is an intellectual property lawyer who used to work for Big Pharma. His expertise lies in patent law, and he currently runs his own business helping start-ups patent their innovations. He knows the ins and outs of Canadian copyright, trademark, and general intellectual property law. Maracle’s discussion of inheritance and intellectual property intertwined with private property and colonial hierarchies led to significant personal reevaluation of my knowledge of what inheritance and intellectual property are. My familial experience of inheritance is tied only to private property and capital. As Maracle states, “private property is the foundation of citizenship and civilization in European society, and intellectual property is an extension of private property. While the power of [Indigenous] names, stories, and songs is what [Indigenous] inheritance is about.”2 Being re-introduced to ideas of inheritance as beyond property and capital is life changing. Understanding a comprehensive view of inheritance includes a family’s history, stories, and experiences.

Inheritance is also heavily tied to place and feeling of belonging in a specific location. Even though I did not grow up in my parent’s place of birth, they are locations which I feel strongly intertwined with. Geographies and learned interaction with the land through coexistence and cultivation define people and heritage. To be forced away from one’s historical natural environment is also a theft of inheritance. In her discussion of inheritance and private property, Maracle emphasizes that land should not be related to ownership or private property. She writes: “Jurisdiction over the land was seen as much for the domain of caretaking responsibilities as our sustenance, while our art (carvings, blankets, stories, and songs) were seen as private or family property, and hence personal wealth, which was intended for giveaway. No wealth existed simply for its acquisition.”3 The settler state’s commodification of land actively opposes Indigenous law and excludes people from connecting to their birthright environment.

My father, a protocol-following and protocol-building upper-Canadian lawyer, is also on the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation as an elected representative of the Vancouver Greens. He is the only Green Party member on the Park Board; the others are ABCs and Independents. Vancouver is one of two cities in North America that has a dedicated Park Board Committee which is separate from City Council. To my knowledge, there are no Indigenous elected officials. The Park Board, representing the state, operates as a colonial authority which commands nature and regulates the land. In their regulation of Vancouver’s parks, they are also the authority which enforces land ownership rules and creates policies surrounding homeless encampments.4

The housing crisis in Vancouver reached an all-time high in the fall of 2023.5 The city’s homelessness report demonstrated that 39% of the homeless population self-identified as Indigenous compared to a mere 2.3% that make up the population of Vancouver.6 In this discussion of colonial compared to Indigenous ideas of inheritance, the systemic oppression is obvious. Maracle reminds the reader that “Indigenous people were not entitled to purchase land or pre-empt land and were restricted to reservations with one-fifth the amount of land per family compared to that allotted to White people.”7 While having to assimilate to a system which has a completely different understanding of inheritance (i.e. it relating to private property and land ownership), Indigenous people were actively excluded from being able to adopt colonial inheritance customs. Without being able to purchase land, it cannot be left as inheritance between generations, which leads to homelessness and further impoverishment.

The Park Board, in recent acts to adopt motions towards Truth and Reconciliation, has committed to decolonization and making decisions in dialogue with the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. From the Park Board’s point of view, they have open communication and responsibility to integrate Indigenous perspectives.7 However, when it comes to defending private property and protecting colonial objectives, the Park Board does not back down. The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) has released multiple statements condemning the Park Board’s eviction of homeless encampments in “their” parks.8 Even in adhering to colonial modes of action, Indigenous authority is disregarded.

Lee Maracle’s description of Indigenous inheritance as relating to nonphysical culture reoriented my understanding of heritage and what constitutes intergenerational connection within a family. By examining how Indigenous inheritance focuses on immaterial, cultural elements, I have become increasingly aware of the nonphysical ways in which I carry my family’s heritage. Another element which highlights the disconnect between Indigenous and colonial understandings of inheritance is tied to land ownership and private property. The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, of which my father is an elected member, acts as colonial enforcers of regulated access to ancestral land. Indigenous people are disproportionately affected by homelessness and The Park Board’s destruction of homeless encampments in parks actively shows the continued struggle to gain access to any form of inheritance, whether that be nonphysical or not.10

Bibliography

“Homelessness services and resources.” City of Vancouver. Accessed April 11,m2025, https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/homeless-and-low-income-resources.aspx

Judd, Amy and Angela Jung. “Vancouver is in a ‘full-blown crisis’ for housing affordability: Report.” Globe and Mail, April 3, 2024. https://globalnews.ca/news/10401449/vancouver -full-blown-crisis-housing-affordability-report/.

Maracle, Lee. “Chapter 10: Appropriation.” In My Conversations with Canadians, 99-122. BookThug, 2017.

Mauboules, Celine and Dustin Lupick. “2023 Homeless Count: Vancouver.” Housing and Homelessness Services, Oct 31, 2023. https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/homeless-count.aspx

UBCIC, “UBCIC Calls on the Vancouver Park Board to Halt the Planned Eviction of CRAB Park Residents.” Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, Nov 6, 2024. https://www.ubcic.bc.ca/halt_the_planned_eviction_of_crab_park_residents_2024.

“Vancouver Park Board Reconciliation Commision Calls to Action.” City of Vancouver, Accessed Feb 23, 2025. https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/why- reconciliation.aspx

  1. Maracle, “Chapter 10: Appropriation,” 100.

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  2. Maracle, “Chapter 10: Appropriation,” 103.

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  3. 3Maracle, “Chapter 10: Appropriation,” 109.

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  4. “Homelessness services and resources,” City of Vancouver, accessed April 11, 2025, https://vancouver.ca/peopleprograms/homeless-and-low-income-resources.aspx

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  5. Amy Judd and Angela Jung, “Vancouver is in a ‘full-blown crisis’ for housing affordability: Report,” Globe and Mail, April 3, 2024, https://globalnews.ca/news/10401449/vancouver-full-blown-crisis-housing-affordabilityreport/.

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  6. Celine Mauboules and Dustin Lupick, ”2023 Homeless Count: Vancouver” Housing and Homelessness Services, Oct 31, 2023, https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/homeless-count.aspx 7 Maracle, “Chapter 10: Appropriation,” 104.

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  7. “Calls to Action,” City of Vancouver, accessed April 11, 2025, https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/whyreconciliation.aspx

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  8. UBCIC, “UBCIC Calls on the Vancouver Park Board to Halt the Planned Eviction of CRAB Park Residents,” Nov 6, 2024, ubcic.bc.ca, https://www.ubcic.bc.ca/halt_the_planned_eviction_of_crab_park_residents_2024.

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