“We are the ones that we are waiting for” - Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities - page 120

Figure 6.2 Photo of Coast Salish declaration drum.
Source: Photo taken by E. Norman, Coast Salish Aboriginal Gathering, Tulalip, Washington 2008.
Critical scalar construction: the development of the Coast
Salish Gatherings
Understanding the context in which the Gathering was developed provides insights
into the construction (or reconstruction) of a shared identity and the importance
of including cultural politics in analyses of borders, water governance, and scale.
This story shows the deliberate intent to rescale governance by “scaling up”
identities from individual bands and tribes to a collective Coast Salish Nation. This
is an important consideration, as rescaling is often thought of as scaling down. The
conscious effort to unify groups on either side of the border draws simultaneously
on historical connectedness and the shared desire to address issues of environmental
degradation. In so doing, the participants of the Gathering are rejecting scales of
governance that bifurcate the Coast Salish community (based on the nation-state
system) and adopting a scale of governance commensurate with traditional Coast
Salish territory (the Salish Sea Basin).
As First Nations leader, Tom Sampson, noted at the 2008 Tulalip Gathering:
“When [Former Premier of British Columbia] Harcourt asked how we
communicated with each other, we said, 'Ceremonies bring us together. We have
our agreement, we have our drum'”. The drum declaration, signed during one of
the original meetings, outlines the inherent right to the lands, waters, and resources