Human remains discovered by construction workers near Cordova Bay Road on Monday afternoon are believed to be ancestral.
Saanich police responded to the 5100 block of Cordova Bay Road, near Cordova Bay Park, on Monday after a report that remains had been found under the boulevard next to the roadway. A large development project is underway.
The area is known to have First Nations remains, so representatives of the Tsawout and Songhees Nations are present on-site as part of the construction process, said Const. Markus Anastasiades of the Saanich police.
Police determined the person had likely died from something other than natural causes.
Experts from the University of Victoria and staff from the archaeological company working for the developer confirmed the remains are of ancestral origin.
Mavis Underwood, elected councillor of the Tsawout First Nation, said the area is known to the First Nation and the discovery is part of their history.
“One of the worst things is to erase our history,” Underwood said. “It makes me really sad, it makes me feel powerless against the government. I am really afraid that we will lose our history.”
University of Victoria anthropology professor Brian Thom said he was at the location and said it’s the old village site of ȾEL¸IȽĆE.
“This is a place where developers have been pulling Indigenous bodies out of the ground for decades now,” he said.
“We will have to find a way to treat the remains in a dignified way. This is someone’s ancestor that is being disturbed.”
The First Nations are continuing the excavation.
