Magnetewan First Nation to host 10th Annual Indigenous Lands and Resource Management Conference
By Rick Garrick
MAGNETAWAN FIRST NATION — Magnetawan First Nation is looking forward to hosting the 10th Annual Indigenous Lands and Resource Management (ILREM) Conference on March 4-6 at the Magnetawan First Nation Community Hall.
“We are bringing back the conference to our community,” says Nadine Perron, environmental management biologist at Magnetawan. “It’s been hosted outside of the community for the past couple of years and this is the first time we’re bringing it back and we’re really excited about that component and some heavy community member involvement, which one of the big focus pieces is to keep engaging the community, showcasing all this work we do 365 days a year and condensing it into kind of three days of activities, workshops, togetherness, community feasts.”
Perron says they will be having a Water Ceremony on Day 1 to bring in more cultural and traditional components at this year’s conference.
“That was one component that our organizer this year, Paige Manitowabi, has really been able to foster and bring in more culture and tradition into our conference,” Perron says. “We want to bring in all these really important pieces of culture and reconnecting us and reminding us why we’re here and what we’re made of and reminding us that we’re part of the environment that we’re managing and protecting.”
Perron says the theme of this year’s conference is We are Water.
“[It’s] kind of bringing back the fact that everything is connected to water — we are mostly made up of water,” Perron says. “It’s a pretty cool initiative that we began with some of the AFSAR (Aboriginal Fund for Species at Risk) granting funds to bring together different First Nation communities, academics and people that work in the environmental field and bring us all together to share strategies and partnerships and research and information on what’s going on in the area and how we can collaborate and foster these really strong relationships and partnerships together.”
Day 1 also includes a Water Worlds Viewing and Networking session, which features a screening of episode 4 of APTN’s Water Worlds documentary series, Turtles of Turtle Island, that highlights Magnetawan’s work to implement stewardship initiatives to help turtles survive.
“We’re going to be showing the 22-minute episode — they did some filming for that in Magnetawan in 2022 and it’s just airing now,” Perron says. “It really showcases these cool initiatives of putting our baby turtles back out in their habitat and some of the foundation work of what’s been bringing this community together is this love for the land and for the turtles and snakes that live there and fighting for their right to be here and to protection and learning to live alongside them.”
Perron says Day 2 includes presentations by seven Water First interns, Jonathan Riberdy on Water Treatment, Stefanie Recollet on Robinson Huron Treaty Initiatives, and the Magnetawan team.
“Water First is an organization that’s been helping strengthen communities from within by training and teaching and having these opportunities for Indigenous people to go and get the type of education and training they need to be able to do water monitoring, environmental water monitoring, well monitoring in their communities, so water-related skills,” Perron says. “So they’re going to be presenting on their program.”
Perron says Day 2 and parts of Day 3 will be available over a virtual format for registered participants. The third day features an Open House: Networking, Learning and Connecting with Partners and Guests event.
“I believe we’re just going to be live-streaming and sending video clips from Day 3, but Day 1 will not be videoed at all,” Perron says.