Who is SIIA
The South Island Indigenous Authority (SIIA) is a Planning Organization
Supporting the Nations of Southern Vancouver Island as they
Reclaim Jurisdiction over Child and Family Services.
We are an Indigenous Governing Body authorized to act on behalf of our Member Nations (seven of the South Island Nations) as we work Nation-to-Nation with the Federal and Provincial governments to resume full jurisdiction over Child and Family services, and enact our own Child and Family law. While SIIA has been in existence only since 2019, our Legislative Planning processes have been directly informed by the decades of work done prior to our formal inception.
From 2019 to present day, we have engaged in extensive community consultation to ensure the legislation we are developing, and the services provided under our law, will embody the values, culture and traditions of our Member Nations. In 2023, we began synthesizing the information gathered through community engagement into our Technical Document (Paddling Together for Jurisdiction) and our Draft Legislation.
It is SIIA’s mission to develop Child and Family Legislation firmly grounded in the legal traditions of our Member Nations. Throughout our community consultation, emphasis has been placed on the traditional and continuing importance of the guest-host relationship, in which the host Nation cares for guests on the territory, while guests respect and adhere to the laws of the host Nation. In alignment with the traditional legal practices of the South Island, our Child and Family law will cover not only members of the seven South Island Nations we represent, but also Indigenous Guests living on our Member Nations’ territories. Our new legislation will empower our communities to develop a Child and Family Services system governed by our people, for our people, and will create a better path forwards for this generation, and the generations to come.
The Nations currently represented by SIIA are:
• Xʷsepsəm (Esquimalt)
• P̓aačiidʔaaʔtx (Pacheedaht)
• Scia’new (Beecher Bay)
• Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees)
• W̱JOȽEȽP (Tsartlip)
• T’Sou-ke
• W̱SÍ,KEM (Tseycum)
• The urban Indigenous guests on the territory.
Our work is empowered by the Bill C-92 Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children youth and families. Bill C-92 has enabled our communities to reclaim their inherent jurisdiction over Child and Family services, and to create their own Indigenous law to replace the existing colonial law instituted by the government of British Columbia.
