At long last! The First Nations: Mapping the Future feature I worked on for CBC is finally up and live on the site.  My contribution (detailed in the blog post below) focused on the Tsawwassen First Nation’s – aka the TFN’s – post-treaty development as the first urban first nation to break free of the Indian Act and emerge as self-governing entity. Big thanks to TFN Chief Kim Baird for her time on this piece.

Here are the YouTube embeds featured in the piece. See the whole interactive feature on CBCnews.ca by following the link above.

The Long Road to Self Government:

Training For a Better Future:

Transforming the Land:

—————–updated———————

I’m in the midst of an assignment for the CBC photographing and interviewing members of the Tsawwassen First Nation – the first urban First Nation in B.C. to settle treaty negotiations and emerge with its own government. The Tsawwassen segment, once I’m done in the field, is intended to be part of a series of stories on Canadian First Nations that have gone through the treaty process. The feature is meant to mark a point in time – a historic milestone really – from which point the future is unknown. For the 420 or so members of the Tsawwassen First Nation (TFN) and their chief,

Kim Baird, their people’s centuries old struggle with the Indian Act came to an end on April 3, 2009 – the date their treaty came into affect after 20 years of negotiations led by Chief Baird. Soon after the TFN’s newly formed Legislature sat for the first time and now, just over a year later, ground has been broken on a $9-Million infrastructure program that will see, if all goes as planned, the construction of a massive container yard intended to service the nearby super tanker port, commercial development, houses and condos. In short, the financial foundation for the TFN’s future. Its an exciting time and a great assignment.

Soon the fields and muddy roads in these photographs will be paved and built up but for now, or on the evening I took these photos anyway, the TFN’s land was quiet. There were few people on the streets – save for construction crews and there was a real stillness about the place, like even the ground knew things would never be the same again. It will be interesting to see how the physical and cultural landscape of the TFN changes over the next little while and I hope to be back there often enough to document that change.

Here’s what it looks like now…

basketball-hoop-2 bus-stop busted-barn Chief-Baird-laws Chief-Bairds-office-sharp Chief Baird church-boat Congrats-Luongo The TFN's new Constitute Deltaport-crossing distant-longhouse distant-shipping-yard empty-skate-park First-20-laws-Constitution First-laws-case longhouse-parking-lot-2 longhouse Luongo-detail marshland-tanker-port new-intersection new-overpass-blur shipping-yard Terry-Baird-closeup Terry-Baird-intersection TFN-brown-house TFN-development-map-close TFN-new-house-2 TFN-new-house-3 TFN-overgrown-house TFN-white-house training-trailer

Daria_1 Daria_2 Daria_Portrait Deadee_3 Deadee_portrait Hanee_framed Hanne_1 Hanne_2 Hanne_3 Hanne_closeup Jen_K_1 Jen_K_Portrait Jen_M_1 Jen_M_Portrait Lena_1 Lena_2 lionsgate Lori_1 Lori_2 miniboat Natalie_1 Natalie_2 Natalie_3 Natalie_Portrait Natalie_Shantifoot Rachel_1 Roxana_2 Roxana_Portrait Tera_1 Terra_portrait Tiffany_1 Tiffany_Portrait

Its too late at night to write this up properly, but here is a sneak peak at some of the images shot for the Shanti Uganda yoga calendar I’ve been working on for past couple weeks. More to come! Enjoy.

-E

If you are interested in purchasing any prints from this series, head to the Shanti Uganda yoga calendar print gallery! We’ll be donating half of all the print purchases back to Shanti Uganda so, its win, win… win! Oh, and don’t forget the secret password: ShantiShanti

Or, just checkout this snazzy little vid!