Across 22,000 square kilometres of traditional territory along the Skeena, Bulkley and Kispiox rivers, the Gitxsan Nation has governed itself under the Ayookw — a legal system covering land, kinship, marriage and spirituality — for time immemorial. Chief O'Brien walks us through what that law looks like in practice, what happened when it collided with Canada's colonial legal system, and how the Gitxsan Nation organized itself to bring oral histories before the Supreme Court of Canada in the landmark Delgamuukw case — a decision that continues to shape Aboriginal title law today.

She also speaks candidly about the tension her generation navigates every day: land and standing timber that are ceremonial and sacred within Gitxsan law, and the same land viewed as an economic resource in the world of industry and government — and what it takes to build relationships across that divide.

This is a conversation about law, land, governance and identity, and about what self-determination looks like for one Nation working to secure its future on its own terms.

Homeland Journey is a Resource Works production that has spent years sitting down with Indigenous leaders across western Canada to explore how their communities are reviving language and culture while building economic self-determination. This episode is the first of a new season, with more Nations across the region to come.

Watch more from the series and read more about the Gitxsan Nation episodes at resourceworks.com/homelandjourney