On September 16th and 17th, the RAVEN team had the opportunity to attend the Decolonizing Land and Water Summit hosted by Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN).
The summit is about reclaiming, protecting, and honouring the lands and waters that ACFN has stewarded for millennia. Dene law is at the heart of ACFN stewardship, rooted in teachings, traditions, and values passed down and shared from their ancestors. For two days, Indigenous leaders and knowledge holders, as well as allies and organizations such as Keepers of the Water, Indigenous Climate Action, DLRM Woodward, came together to discuss critical issues relating to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), environmental monitoring, treaty rights, water policy, and cumulative effects.
“If only they [Canada] scrapped their water policy, and used ours and put it into their mechanism…wouldn’t they have the safest drinking water in Canada? All we ask is to do what we ask you to do. Because we took the time to put our heart into the work.” – Chief Allan Adam, ACFN
The event also had an Elders Fire Pit, a space where elders spoke and guided attendees in grounded discussions relating to Indigenous laws and ancestral wisdom.
The elders and youth supported opening and closing each day with a prayer, song or reflection, which emphasized the spiritual tone of the work being done.
“It’s so easy to get disconnected by all the paperwork, legal jargon, and policy frameworks, that spaces like this often remind me that decisions were made around the fire, orally, where everyone can see each other and engage in person,” says Karissa, Digital Content Specialist at RAVEN. “It’s so easy to forget that when you’re working digitally. I am grateful for these spaces that keep me grounded.”
On the last day, the summit was closed with a Tea Dance. The Dene Tea Dance is a traditional ceremony consisting of singing and drumming, and dancing around a sacred fire, reminding us that the work of decolonization transcends policy and paperwork — it’s about reviving ceremony and maintaining relationships with all things living and non-living.
RAVEN is extremely honoured to have witnessed such a powerful event. And we are honoured to be supporting ACFN in their legal challenge to hold the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) accountable for toxic tailings spills that have contaminated key areas of their traditional territory that the community engages with for food, water, and cultural purposes.
To learn more about their legal challenge and get involved, visit raventrust.com/acfn.
