Indigenous peoples have inherent rights to the lands on which they have lived since time immemorial. That is the message from Professor , member of the Bigstone Cree Nation and faculty in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies. These rights, Alook emphasizes, bring responsibilities to protect the land and the water.

Violation of Treaty rights by the colonial state interferes with these sacred responsibilities to the natural world. This is a matter of sovereignty. It is also a matter of climate justice.

Fossil fuel companies operating on Indigenous lands destroy the land and water. It is against this destruction that First Nations take up their Treaty Rights, Alook explains, led by Water Protectors, who are responsible for the sacred duty to protect the Earth.

Water Protectors became known to international publics in the movement to challenge the Dakota Access Pipeline on the lands of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Fulfilling traditional and ongoing responsibilities, Alook explains, Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people led the way in honouring their responsibilities to the land and standing against settler colonial ecological violence.

When Water Protectors at Standing Rock were sprayed with hoses and violently detained by the police, their steadfast defense became a stand against settler colonial dispossession, against violence targeting Indigenous women and genderqueer people, and for Indigenous survivance.

As Anishinaabe intellectual Gerald Vizenor explains in his book, , such moments refuse settler colonial attempts to reduce Indigenous peoples to victims. In Alook’s words, survivance means that, “Indigenous peoples have always been here, we are here now, and we will be here for future generations.” Protecting the water participates in the creation of new futures for Indigenous peoples, for their cultures and for their knowledges.

In Alook’s home territory of Treaty 8, Cree and Dene people are fighting to protect the Lower Athabasca River system, which includes the Peace-Athabasca Delta. This water system is critical, Alook explains, if First Nation members are practicing their Treaty rights and maintain relationships with the river and the land that sustain their distinctive ways of living and being. A 2010 study on the Athabasca River done by the Firelight Group, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, and Mikisew First Nation, called emphasizes that the Athabasca river is at the very heart of their Traditional lands.

In keeping with this report, Alook emphasizes that without enough clean water in the river system, “we cannot access areas that matter to us culturally and spiritually and we cannot sustain our families on the traditional foods that keep us healthy.” Similarly, As Long as the River Runs explains, “Losing the ability to access creeks, side channels and tributaries by boat means losing access to the land. Losing access to the land means lost opportunities for language and knowledge transmission, and for maintaining connections between generations, as well as between people, animals,” and “waters that are at the heart of being Dene and being Cree”.

Protecting the river water from climate change is about protecting Indigenous futures. Water protectors enact Indigenous sovereignty by carrying out responsibilities to sacred lands. They delink from settler colonialism and provide gendered relinking to Indigenous knowledges. This renews land-based practices, which are necessary to fight climate change.

Alook concludes, “Our land-based knowledge’s are vital to Indigenous peoples but in an era of climate change, they matter to everyone. There will be no sustainable future without us.”

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In November 2022, the twenty seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) to the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change, was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The aim of this annual event was to bring countries together to take action towards climate goals established under the Paris Agreement and the wider Convention. Both Drs. and travelled to Egypt to participate.

In the event hosted by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages on March 9, 2023, Drs. Alook and Reed shared their experiences attending COP 27 as Indigenous Peoples. The conversation was moderated by Dr. Sean Hillier, Interim director of CIKL. 

Both seasoned attendees of COP, Alook and Reed reflected on the changes they have observed and experienced over the different conferences they attended. Dr. Alook, Assistant Professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Health at 91��ɫU and a member of Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 territory, had previously travelled to COP 25 as part of the RINGO (Research and Independent Non-Governmental Organizations) delegation sent by 91��ɫ and as part of the Indigenous caucus at COP 26. This year, she travelled as a researcher with the primary aim of conducting interviews with Indigenous climate leaders and activists as part of her research project, Indigenous Climate Leadership and Self-Determined Futures.  

Dr. Reed has been participating in the UN Framework Convention on climate change for 5 1/2 years. He has been to five COP meetings to date. Most recently, he attended as part of his work with the AFN (Assembly of First Nations) and the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on CLimate Change, the Indigenous Peoples Caucus. He has played an integral role in establishing Indigenous spaces at COP. As a postdoctoral fellow at 91��ɫU, Dr. Reed worked with Dr. Alook in conducting interviews which coincides with his ongoing research that investigates the intersection of Indigenous governance, environmental governance, and the climate crisis. 

COP27 marked the first time there was a dedicated space for ceremony and an self-funded Indigenous Peoples Pavilion, supported by NDN Collective. All events at the pavilion were live-streamed, and the space included a media zone and an Elders lounge. Dr. Reed emphasized that in addition to increases in the amount of physical space for Indigenous Peoples, there were also more Indigenous participants than past years, over 270 in total. He also noted the number of knowledge keepers in attendance, hosted by the Facilitative Working Group as part of the workplan of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform. 

The importance of community was raised by Dr. Alook. She explained how Indigenous Peoples “have to act as a community when we are there.” She shared how intimidating the conference can be for many Indigenous Peoples. Some have never travelled such a long distance before. Some have faced incredible challenges in sharing their stores. Some continued to face discrimination at COP despite being invited guests.  

While positive changes were identified at COP27, the impact of Indigenous voices were not always captured in larger policy negotiations, according to Reed and Alook. The institutionalization of how the climate problem is articulated was raised by Dr. Reed. He emphasized that while representation of Indigenous Peoples has grown, decision texts that refer to Indigenous Peoples has declined since COP26. He suggested that more work needed to be done to examine the federal and international institutional structures that limit the inclusion of Indigenous voices, calling for decolonized climate policy. 

Despite laying out the critical work that needs to be done and the challenges of dismantling a deeply colonial system, the event ended on some positive words. Two key pieces of advice were shared (1) Get involved in local organizations. Several exist at 91��ɫU, to advocate for decolonial approaches to climate change. (2) Learn more. Dr. Alook shared her new book, , which goes more in-depth on howe we can make radical social changes.  

Both Alook and Reed intend on travelling to COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in November.  

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World Water Day: A Solutions-Driven Workshop on Climate Impacts on Freshwater was co-hosted by CIFAL 91��ɫ and the Office of the Provost, in partnership with the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, 91��ɫ. The event is part of CIFAL 91��ɫ’s In-Focus Knowledge Exchange Series for Nature, Climate, and People curated by Idil Boran.

The convenors of the workshop were , Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, CIFAL 91��ɫ and Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, and , Associate Professor in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Provostial Fellow.

The event participated in World Water Day events, which have been held around the globe since 1993.

Professor Sharma observes that today, two billion people do not have access to clean water at home, while in Canada, more than 800 communities are subject to long-term drinking water advisories. Among communities that have not had clean water for more than ten years, two-thirds are Indigenous, characteristic of the inequitable distribution of fresh water in Canada and around the world. These facts frame the discussions for the workshop, bringing together concerns about access to fresh water and inequities within and across nations during an era of climate change.

Keynote speaker Professor Orbinski, Director of the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, began with the observation that freshwater is precious. The contemporary narratives about our relationship with the natural world are inadequate, however, to the challenges we face, given shrinking freshwater supplies due to climate change and inequitable access to water. “We need a different story about how we view ourselves, how we view our relation to each other and to the biosphere,” Professor Orbinski emphasized, adding, “This demands an understanding of the complexity of the hydrosphere and more broadly the biosphere within which all human life exists.” We are now an urban population of close to eight billion people on this fragile earth. The impact of climate change and biodiversity loss is massive, making it very difficult to make accurate predictions about the consequences of these disruptions for the biosphere and human communities. We do know, however, that as climate change diminishes the access to freshwater, competition and conflict increases, as different communities struggle to secure water access for fishing, farming and other subsistence and cultural activities. To begin to address these challenges, Professor Orbinski argues, requires us to let go of tenacious ideas about human dominion over nature so that we may grasp the fundamental truth that, “We are part of nature and we depend on nature for our very being and survival.”

Professor Daniel Olago, Chair of the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, spoke about the continent of Africa, which holds 25% of the world’s surface water. Despite the abundance of freshwater sources, these have been negatively impacted by human activity, including deforestation and overfishing, as well as by climate change. Biodiversity suffers with cascading consequences. Flamingo populations in Lake Nakuru are decreasing, negatively affecting tourism and the economic health of the region, while in Lake Malawi, the loss of native fish leads to hunger and malnutrition among communities dependent on healthy fish stocks. Solutions are made complex by the dozens of political jurisdictions acting in lake areas and sectoral approaches to management, leading to poor coordination in addressing systemic challenges. An Integrated Lake Basin Management approach is required, Profesor Olago argues, bringing a holistic approach that balances conservation with sustainable development goals. 

As Dr. Syed Imran Ali, Research Fellow at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, observes, floods and droughts are the spectacular face of climate change and its devastating effects on freshwater sources. Equally important, but less noticed, are changes to the quality of the world’s water due to contamination. Inadequate sanitation always poses risks to the quality of the water supply, but these risks are experienced unequally. Worldwide, rural populations and refugees displaced due to conflict and disaster experience acute difficulties in accessing clean fresh water. The consequence is the proliferation of deadly water-borne infectious diseases, like cholera, watery diarrhoea and hepatitis E. Preventing deaths means improving water quality through chlorination at the point of consumption, where World Health Organization “universal standards” for chlorination are inadequate in many humanitarian crisis contexts. To improve water quality in refugee camps and similar contexts, Dr. Ali and his team have developed machine learning and numerical modelling tools that determine adequate levels of chlorination to ensure water remains safe. This is one example of solutions-driven research that responds to the challenge of providing clean water in crisis situations and that is now in use by seven major humanitarian organizations working around the world.

Dr. , Assistant Professor in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies and a member of the Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 territory, observes that water crises are not only outside of Canada, but affect many First Nations communities on lands claimed by the Crown. She warns:

“There is something happening beneath our feet. It will stop the rivers from flowing and the water from filling the lakes in the spring. We will lose our fish, our moose and our traditional ways of living…The water will be stolen… All Canadians should be concerned, because the hunger of the oil industry has no limits. If we contaminate waters upstream, we contaminate all water downstream and the ecosystems upon which they depend.”

If Indigenous nations have shown remarkable resilience, they have been impoverished by the colonial theft of Indigenous land and left traumatized by genocide, including the infamous residential school system that sought to extinguish Indigenous kinship and ways of knowing and doing. The oil industries step into this context, making false promises to Indigenous communities that feel they have few choices as they seek to recover the power and knowledges that colonial actors have forcibly wrested from them. Dr. Alook emphasizes that this must end now through the recovery of Indigenous sovereignty, especially taking up responsibilities towards the land: “As long as the sun shines, as long as the rivers flow, let it be the sovereignty of our people that takes precedence over the capitalist and colonial theft of our lands…This is our land, this is our water, and let us be stewards of all that the Creator has bestowed upon us.” 

Dr. Catherine Febria is Canada Research Chair of Freshwater Restoration Ecology at the University of Windsor. Dr. Febria describes the Healthy Headwaters Lab, which she directs, as seeking to “connect land, water and people for future generations” using a decolonial, community-centered interdisciplinary approach. River restoration now involves billions of dollars worldwide but moving forward demands more than money – it requires coordinated actions at every level from the most local to the global. In coordinating, Dr. Febria emphasizes, “Science matters, but so does communication if diverse communities are to be meaningfully involved in river restoration. Best practices foreground local involvement.” In Canterbury in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Māori community members, farmers and community groups came together with scientists to create healthy rivers. “The relationships come before the science” Professor Febria observes, “It’s about building trust by listening and mobilizing lived knowledge alongside science.” 

Human and environmental health depends on clean fresh water. On World Water Day 2022, these researchers came together to emphasize the importance of holistic approaches that take up science in collaboration with those most immediately affected by the contamination of freshwater sites, including Indigenous and other communities marginalized from power and decision-making. New ways of doing science with diverse knowledge holders and new/old ways of understanding human relationships within the natural world are necessary, they emphasize, for freshwater to be restored and for the flourishing of all life in generations to come.

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Dr. is Assistant Professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at 91��ɫ. A member of Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 territory, her research focuses on the political economy of oil and gas in Alberta. She is a co-investigator on the SSHRC-funded (Partnership Grant) Corporate Mapping Project, where she completed research with the Parkland Institute on Indigenous experiences in Alberta’s oil industry and its gendered impact on working families. Angele is also a member of the Just Powers research team, a SSHRC-funded Insight Grant, enabling her to produce a documentary called Pikopaywin: It is Broken. Featuring stories on the land, Indigenous traditional land users, environmental officers, and elders bear witness to the impact that the fossil fuel industry, forestry and climate change has on traditional Treaty 8 territory. With Dr. Deborah McGregor, Osgoode Hall Law School and Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC), Angele is co-investigator on the project, funded by 91��ɫ. 

“The ways that bureaucracy deals with Indigenous peoples is to assign a group of experts to talk to us and the rest simply continue as they always have,” observes Professor Alook. Government, often working hand in hand with corporations, together speak to Indigenous peoples. “But they do not consult us,” continues Professor Alook, “Nor do they respect their treaties with us.” In the words of community Elders, the consequence is that the land that makes up Treaty 8 territory is now broken, devastated by oil and gas wells and the infrastructure that supports them.

In the film produced by Professor Alook, Pikopaywin: It is Broken, she speaks to Elders from her community who bear witness to the devastation that the oil industry has wrought. “We care for the water. We care for the land. Because it is our diet, it is our livelihood,” emphasizes Elder Albert Yellowkneee. Since the oil industry has destroyed much of the land that gives life and livelihood, Yellowknee fears that he is the last generation to experience the land in this way: “What about my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren? Will they have a place to go out into the woods and meditate? Like we do?” For Professor Alook, such conversations were difficult: “Elder Albert brought me and the film crew close to tears. Because he has a trapline, which has been in his family for many generations, and it has been literally cut down, destroyed, by the oil and forestry industry. He is no longer able to offer traditional, land-based teachings in the same way. We are no longer able to practice our treaty rights.”

To create a future for the children of Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 territory means challenging the government, for its failure to respect treaty rights. This demands confrontation with corporations, who fail to consult with the Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 territory, much less respect Indigenous self-determination. If this is a very unequal struggle, it is a vitally necessary one. As Elder Verna Orr observes, “If we have no trees, there is no life out there.” And she continues, “My hope is for people to stand together, pray together and be strong. And hopefully, the government and the oil companies will stop taking our trees.” 

Pikopaywin: It is Broken is available through the website.

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