Indigenous Water Defenders
In the fight against pipelines, political powers, and trade, indigenous folks in Canada have been, and will continue to, protect the resource all of humanity depends on: water.
“Water has to be treated with dignity and respect” — Josephine Mandamin
What is sanitation justice?
Sanitation can be a variety of different resources and deals with water and waste management for the most part. It overlaps with the idea of health justice and access to clean consumption of resources for individuals. Sanitation justice is the equitable access to these resources and became a heated discussion after many structural adjustment policies required developing countries to privatize their public resources, the first of which was water. The infamous ‘water wars’ that took place in many countries in the global south as a result of the IMF requiring these countries (Bolivia, Guinea, South Africa) to privatize their public resources like water.
Cities erupted in protest as the cost of water became prohibitive, promised pipes were never run to the poor neighborhoods, and international fi rms held city governments hostage to contracts that guaranteed rates of returns to the fi rms with no guarantees to the city that all would receive a fair share of the city’s water (CGSR “Development and the City” )
In relation to indigenous folks, sanitation justice looks a little more like this:
This problem extends beyond the borders of north america and means that in both canada and the united states, native nations and indigenous communities are unable to get clean water
The issue is more complex than people think. Long term advisories can go away but short term advisories can replace them meaning that the water isn’t permanently cleaned, it is just a bandaid solution. The reserve system in Canada was passed in 1876 with the Indian Reservation Act. This gave government control over most aspects of first nations peoples lives.
“Our social, political, economic, and spiritual life were basically attacked and destroyed. part of colonialism is to destroy the indigenous population and recreate them in your image so they can be managed”
Reserve land is under the jurisdiction of federal law however typically watter access is governed by provincial government which leads to a bit of disconnect in resources.
The Human Rights Watch released a study in conjunction with Chiefs of Ontario titled “The Human Right to Water: A Guide for First Nations Communities and Advocates”.
They concluded that while the Canadian government is making small strides towards reducing the number of tribes under boil advisories, there are still 57 water advisories. A boil advisory is one of three types of water advisories. It means that individuals are told to boil their water for at least one minute prior to consuming and that they should not bathe infants or the elderly in tap water.
The trauma of water insecurity in tribal communities is two-fold. For health purposes individuals are deprived of the basic right to clean water. On a deeper level, it reveals how many of the basic tenements like infrastructure and water pipes were never put in place in these communities during colonization and post colonization because they were assumed to die out. Water also holds spiritual importance in these communities, with many women being the protectors of this sacred entity.
“Water is life,” said Ontario Regional Chief RoseAnne Archibald. “We recognize women as the sacred keepers of the water and know that it’s a gift that connects all life. Water is significant to our way of life and livelihoods, and we recognize our inherent responsibilities as caretakers to protect water. Our responsibilities and our rights include all aspects of the use of water, jurisdiction and stewardship over use and access to water, and the protection of water.”
Some places in Ontario haven’t had safe water for 25+ years. That is whole generations of folks unable to trust the water or the government in fulfilling its promises. With each new election, candidates offer more solutions but it goes deeper and the bureaucracy of the solutions almost intentionally fails because of how disenfranchised these communities are.
Grassroots work
The main section on the grassroots group and their practices. Introduce the group, who are they, what is the composition of the group, and then focus on what kind of practices do they engage in. what do they do and why and how.
transgressive and imaginative
A specific movement that challenges and demands more is the Mother Earth Water Walkers who are a group of Anishinawbe mothers and grandmothers who have taken it upon themselves to demonstrate the spiritual connection of water and walk the journey of the great lakes. Every spring they walk a different great lake and it is through a coalition of aboriginal groups and volunteer help that they are able to accomplish this long journey.
The founder, Josephine Mandamin, walked over 25,000 miles before she passed away earlier this year. As chief water commissioner of the Anishinaabe nation, she was consistent in reminding people of the spiritual importance of keeping water clean and uncontaminated. Her water walking effort was one of a bigger movement that sparked bigger conversations about water protectors and the matriarchal structure of many of these tribal nations meant the movement was largely led by women.
We are doing this walk on our own beliefs within our own aboriginal culture and values of the importance of our waters is very precious and sacred to our being, as it is one of the basic elements needed for all life to exist.
Her last walk was in April 2017 and had a following of over a thousand participants. They traveled up the southern shoreline of Lake Superior, then to the north and eastern shore of Lake Huron. From there they followed the northern shore of Lake Erie to Niagara Falls and then to Lake Ontario. Then Matane Quebec Canada to the Saint Lawrence River and ending at the Labrador Sea and North Atlantic Ocean.
This brings up interesting ideas of insurgency because outside of traditional planning and activation of citizenship especially for individuals who are already outside the realm of citizenship. Ideas like self-determination resonate deeply with this community that has attempted to claim its land and access its resources for so long. This counter-hegemonic activation of water as a body of spirit rather than a depletable resource counters the mainstream ideas of borders of these waters, which water walkers challenge, and the passiveness of water and resources in light of industrial developments of things like pipelines and fracking. Insurgent planning rests on the idea of “recognizing self-determined and group-based forms of oppression in reaching justice” (Faranak) which is inherent to the identities of indigenous peoples in Canada. These practices transgress neoliberal economic principles because of their ancestral roots. Time and place and boundaries of provinces aren’t relevant to these practices because they go beyond and are before colonization. The Anishanawbe women were practicing these sacred water rituals before the existence of Canada and will continue it after. It imagines a world that holds water as sacred, alternative to the mainstream that views it as a resource. These ideas go far enough to claim that water is a being and it should have rights; challenging ideas of citizenship, legality, and rights.
Shirley Williams right
blue shirt Liz Osawamik
photo credit: Chris Welter
This movement is about more than just walking and gathering attention. It is carrying the legacy of ancestors which are ROOTED in grassroots activism. The elders work with younger folks in the community and expect them to continue the movement even after they have retired which is what Josephine’s grand-niece is doing, Autumn Peltier. Autumn is one of many young activists carrying on the legacy by cultivating her own persona of water walkers. She has challenged Prime Minister Trudeau in upholding his promises of ending the boil advisory, and spoken openly on international platforms about environmental injustice that many tribes in Canada face. She is the embodiment of the ancestral knowledge that Josephine hoped to pass on and is one of many water protectors fighting for the spirit of the resource.
Work cited
F. Miraftab 2018. “Insurgent Practices and Decolonization of Future(s)” in Michael Gunder, Ali Madanipour, Vanessa Watson (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Planning Theory. Pp. 276–288.
