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Hamilton fundraiser for Indigenous women’s charity created, in response to Freedom Convoy

Hamilton fundraiser for Indigenous women’s charity created, in response to Freedom Convoy

A director at a Hamilton non-profit started a fundraiser on Friday for a charity that supports Indigenous women and families, as a response to the Freedom Convoy that has heavy coverage over several news cycles. Robyn Knickle, the director of development at the Neighbour 2 Neighbour Centre in Hammilton, wrote in a social media post that seeing the tally for the trucker convoy climb past $6 million (much of which has originated from outside of Canada), caused her to wonder why there was no similar groundswell of support for Indigenous communities. Within six hours, the GoFundMe campaign she created to support the charitable foundation linked to the Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) had raised $700, toward a modest goal of $5,000.

Sweet water

Sweet water

‘Water sustains us, flows between us, within us, and replenishes us. Water is the giver of all life, and, without clean water, all life will perish.’—Assembly of First Nations “No human being, no animal or plant, can live without its water,” says Dawn Martin-Hill, co-founder of the Indigenous Studies program at Hamilton’s McMaster University. For centuries, the Unist’ot’en people have called Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia home. Their way of life is such that they can drink straight from the pristine Morice River (Wedzin Kwah) that flows through their land. Last year, construction began on the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, posing a direct threat to the Morice. “We call it sweet water,” said Martin-Hill. “We had that everywhere. We had it here in Ontario.” “You know it when you’re drinking it. I’d rather have sweet water over running water.”