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Latest news about the Safe Drinking Water Team
Saugeen Ojibway Nation Water Walkers led by women from the Chippewas of Nawash and Saugeen First Nations are travelling nearly 600 kilometres around the boundary of their territory this month. Hundreds of members from the Saugeen Ojibway Nation are expected to participate in the walk and carry a kettle of water and an eagle staff throughout the traditional SON territory.
A Winnipeg-based artist is getting her hands dirty this summer for a 10-day workshop in Grand Rapids, Man., that focuses on harvesting clay by hand to create traditional Indigenous water vessels. Visual artist KC Adams, who is Anishinaabe, Nêhiyaw and British, is leading the workshop, titled Water Knowledge, where she guides a group of women-identifying and non-binary artists deep into the land on Lake Winnipeg's northeastern shore, teaching them the traditional practice.
“When settlers arrived, you could drink the water from our creeks. Now, in 50 years, you can’t drink the water from our lakes or creeks or eat the vegetation on our lakeshore.” Today, the women who attended the first annual tea and bannock celebration in Peachland, are trying to do something about it, with a Syilx water declaration that they hope will inspire other communities to do the same.
In her new documentary “There’s Something in the Water”, co-directed by Ian Daniel, the actress and activist focuses on the effects of environmental racism on black and indigenous communities in Nova Scotia. “In Canada, your postal code determines your health,” sociologist Ingrid Waldron says in the trailer for the film. “So we know that where you live has bearing on your well-being. Indigenous and black communities are the ones that tend to be located near hazardous sites.”
