The likely renaming of the small British Columbia community of Okanagan Falls exemplifies the toxicity, unworkability, and power of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) and 'decolonization' more broadly. It is a top-down, legally binding process, not an organic or democratic one.
The DRIPA Mandate
DRIPA, passed by the B.C. NDP government in 2019, requires the province to align its laws with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which includes recognizing and restoring traditional Indigenous place names. The mandate to rename Okanagan Falls stems from these legal obligations.
A Proposed Compromise
A dual name has been proposed by the province as a compromise, in both the English and local Indigenous Syilx language, partially to appease the Osoyoos Indian Band, whose leadership is resolute on the matter. The potential Syilx name remains undetermined.
Chief Clarence Louie said, 'When it comes to reconciliation and land claims and Indigenous people having rights, those aren’t up for a vote.'
Okanagan Falls is seeking to become B.C.’s newest municipality. However, through the incorporation process, the very name of the community itself has become subject to a higher dispensation.
The South Africanization of B.C.
This is the South Africanization of B.C., in which an ideology of historical accusation, and the causes of 'reconciliation' and 'decolonization,' are turned into a permanent regime of racial political privilege, with undemocratic renamings only part of it. Unlike South Africa, Canada has no legacy of apartheid, and there is no reason for us to conduct our politics as if such a legacy exists.
What we call a place matters greatly. If it did not, those on the political left and radical Indigenous activists would not devote so much time and energy to changing place names.
Parallels with Post-Apartheid South Africa
After the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa’s new, supposedly post-racial government for the 'Rainbow Nation' also began to wrap itself in the language of reconciliation. Rather than becoming a movement for national healing, the politics that followed evolved into something that included almost punitive dispossession of property, vicious rhetoric, and history wars. Sound familiar?
Much of Canada is walking the same road, especially in B.C., and DRIPA has been made into a legal weapon.
DRIPA as a Legal Weapon
Following rulings that found DRIPA was legally binding to all past and future laws, rather than merely a guideline, NDP Premier David Eby attempted to suspend the legislation. He stopped himself in his tracks after the First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) warned that any amendments without its permission would result in the pursuit of 'every available avenue, legal, political and through direct action.'
Faced with a situation that stopped barely short of open rebellion, Eby backed down. New powers have been unintentionally ceded to unelected Indigenous authorities, and they will fight to keep them. These powers include the ability to change what is on the maps of the province.
