Protecting water a key discussion at Anishinabek Nation Water Consortium

By Rick Garrick

LITTLE CURRENT — The importance of protecting water was featured during the presentations and panel discussions at the Anishinabek Nation Water Consortium gathering, held March 18-19 at the Manitoulin Hotel and Conference Centre in Little Current.

“I came here to talk about the legal personhood initiative that we’ve got going on in Rice Lake,” says Alderville First Nation Chief Taynar Simpson. “As I said before yesterday, we have to stand up for the water, if we don’t take these important steps, then we’re going to have some serious problems down the road.”

Chief Simpson says his community feels that drastic action has to happen for Rice Lake.

“We’ve been doing the water testing, we’ve been taking the samples, and we know that there’s going to be a breaking point eventually where all life will be frozen out of our lake,” Chief Simpson says. “With all the weeds growing, there’s not going to be any oxygen levels and then it might become what’s considered like a dead lake, and we’re already seeing the very beginnings of that so we know action needs to be taken.”

Chief Simpson says they have to go hundreds of feet out into the lake before they can get away from the weeds at the bottom of their boats at the Vimy Ridge community area.

“Our Elders don’t remember seeing that in the past,” Chief Simpson says. “We had a lot more ability to traverse our waters without those weeds being there — it seems to be getting worse every year but we’re going to do what we can.”

Anishinabek Nation E’Dbendaagzijig (Citizenship) Commissioner Jeanette Corbiere Lavell says it was important to have the Water Walks: Honouring Josephine’s Legacy session to recognize the late Grandmother Water Walker Josephine Mandamin-baa during the gathering.

“That really made me feel good because Josephine is one of our key people when we look at the roles of our Indigenous women,” Commissioner Corbiere Lavell says. “She shared with me many years ago, she said she had this dream, and in that dream, she was told to do the Water Walk, and she did it, and she started it — that took a lot of courage.”

Anishinabek Nation Deputy Grand Council Chief Chris Plain says the Anishinabek Nation is deeply committed to the health and sustainability of the Great Lakes.

“As we all know, water is the foundation of life and essential to our cultural and spiritual identity,” Deputy Grand Council Chief Plain says. “Invasive species and environmental degradation threaten our ecosystems and our food security and our traditional practices, and we’ve heard about that, from our fish stocks, our wild rice, and everything else that the water provides for us. First Nation leadership is critical to sustainable resource management and the Anishinabek Nation is committed to fostering relationships with governments.”

Anishinbek Nation Lake Huron Regional Chief Scott McLeod says it was good to hear about the partnerships and projects that are being funded to look at the health of the water during the gathering, but he stressed the importance of jurisdiction.

“It was taken away from First Nations, we didn’t surrender it, it was assumed by the colonial governments that they had the jurisdiction over water,” Regional Chief McLeod says. “So if we’re going to make fundamental change in protecting our waters, one of two things have to change and that’s the jurisdiction itself, of giving back jurisdiction to First Nations, or the philosophy in which those jurisdictions govern the protection of water because if we look at the First Nations’ history in relations to water and environment and the jurisdiction that they held as stewards to those territories they lived in, it was based in traditional law, it was based in natural law.”

Regional Chief McLeod says natural law is not governed by a court system, it is governed by nature.

“First Nations people understood this very well that the laws were dictated by the environments they lived in,” Regional Chief McLeod says. “So from that, we learned what the punishments were, they weren’t fines set by a court that you could simply pay and then move on and continue your exploitation of the lands and waters, it meant starving or surviving, and we understood that. The actual fact is we learned over our time here on Turtle Island that natural law was serious business, that if you break natural law, there are serious consequences.”

Southeast Regional Chief Marsha Smoke says she was “blown away” with the talent and expertise of the presenters and panellists at the gathering.

“The words from Regional Chief McLeod really hit home when it comes to jurisdiction and inherent rights,” Regional Chief Smoke says. “Those are the things that must be reflected in everything we do, it’s always there, it’s not something that we always see front and centre, but it’s always the message that’s behind all of the work that we need to undertake on behalf of our citizens and First Nations.”

Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Head Getzit Richard Assinewai stressed the importance of Anishinaabemowin, noting that the water spirits understand what people are saying when they speak Anishinaabemowin.

“That language that I talked about yesterday and a little bit this morning is very sacred, but like I said, don’t worry if you cannot speak it — it’s not your fault,” Getzit Assinewai says. “But we need to bring it back and learn, that’s the hardest thing to do is learn it. We need to go back to the original ones that speak it, that carry those sacred words.”

Getzit Assinewai says the Anishinabek also need to start a spiritual connection.

“I hear spirit, all the words in your presentations, it’s all about spirit,” Getzit Assinewai says. “So we need to start working with spirit, spirit of the land, the water, the animals, everything.”

Video streams of the Anishinabek Nation Water Consortium gathering are posted online at the Anishinabek Nation YouTube channel.