“Our traditional laws are not dead. They are bruised and battered but alive within the hearts and minds of the indigenous peoples across our lands. Our elders hold these laws within their hearts for us. We have only to reach out and live the laws. We do not need the sanction of the nonindigenous world to implement our laws. These laws are given to us by the Creator to use. We are going to begin by using them as they were intended. It is our obligation to the children yet unborn.”
Sharon Venne Saulteau First Nation, Fort St. John, British Columbia, 20 November 1992
Royal Commission on Aboriginal peoples, vol.2, chapter 3, s. 1.2 Traditions of Governance,
The Canadian legal landscape relating to customary water laws has been in transition since Indigenous rights were 'entrenched' in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982. Court cases will continue to be brought before Canada's courts in attempts to clarify the nature of customary water laws and First Nations Peoples.
Customary law's applicability to water-related issues is but one part of the broader issue of settlement of outstanding land claims, primarily focused on establishing aboriginal title to land and its inherent natural resources (of which water is a component), legal scholars have referred to 'customary water rights' as the ‘sleeping giant’ that will impact future settlements between Indigenous Nations and Canada.
Recommended Reading - Assembly of First Nations - National Water Declaration.
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