“We need a seat at the table.” Chief Willie Sellars says simply at the BC Natural Resource Forum in Prince George last night [January 16].
“We are a resource-based economy in Williams Lake. What we want to do is build relationships, create revenue streams, and make sure that we are a part of the works that are happening in our traditional territory, because of the significance of the impacts that those works have to our traditional territory.”
Chief Sellars says that the Williams Lake First Nation is approaching new opportunities with an “open heart and open mind”, and says politicians and industry need to keep that in mind to work together when making new policies and diversity within forestry.
“We want to be a part of those conversations, and we welcome anyone that wants to have a conversation, as long as it’s respectful and we’re holding each other up at the same time.”
Williams Lake First Nation is one of the largest employers in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region and in the Traditional Territory. With a logging company, holds in the cannabis industry, and retail space, as well as looking at new opportunities to improve health and wellness programs.
Sellars says the First Nations are looking at ways to diversify their economies, while looking at the legacy and impacts forestry projects have on their Traditional Territory.
“I think about these economies that are Indigenous communities in these different territories across the province and across the country. We are going to be the backbones of these economies, especially in rural communities in this province. Politicians have to hold up what First Nations are representing in their community, and how we can continue to work together.”
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