This morning, members of the Musqueam First Nation and its supporters are marching to protest a Marpole condo construction project that they say threatens to destroy a 4,000-year-old native village and burial site.
The Lower Mainland band says the site, known as the Marpole midden, has been continually occupied by the Musqueam people since the time of the first pyramids in Egypt and has been a designated National Historic Site for Canada since 1938.
The Musqueam believe the BC Government and Vancouver City Council have placed the commercial interest of the developers above “the just and right assertion of the Musqueam that this site not be developed.”
This week, partially uncovered infant burials were found on the Southwest Marine Drive construction site, along with other human remains discovered over the past weeks.
The Musqueam cite the reason for the march as an “urgent need to preserve the last remaining undisturbed portion of the midden site, before further development destroys one of the most meaningful storehouses of the history and culture of the Musqueam people.”
The nation would prefer the site become an interpretive centre and park and last month offered the developer a land swap for Musqueam land in a different location.
The march to save the site will be followed by speeches from First Nations leaders including Musqueam Chief Ernest Campbell (pictured), Tsawwassen Chief Kim Baird and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the BC Union of Indian Chiefs.
