The B.C. Court of Appeal has overturned a lower-court ruling after finding the judge used an "arbitrary boundary" to determine a First Nation's Aboriginal title over a swath of Nootka Island off western Vancouver Island.

A three-judge panel says the B.C. Supreme Court made three legal errors when limiting the Nuchatlaht Nation's claim over a 201 square kilometre portion of the island, finding the nation had met the test for "sufficient occupation" when the British Crown asserted sovereignty.

The Nuchatlaht's lawyer, Jack Woodward, said in an interview Thursday that they are "jubilant" about the recognition of the ownership of their land.

He said Nuchatlaht is a small, remote community that has been "somewhat ignored and neglected by the rest of society for a very long time."

"They had to sit by helplessly and watch their ancestral heritage being industrialized and logged," he said.