It’s World Water Day. I am reflecting on the February anniversary of Neskantaga First Nation’s boil water advisory. At 29 years (and counting), it’s the longest in Canadian history. Despite Trudeau’s 2015 election promise to get clean drinking water in all Indigenous communities by 2021, the federal government continues to “discuss” how to move forward with lifting the long-term boil water advisory in Neskantaga’s homelands.
I am also approaching my 29th birthday. Throughout my life, I’ve never had to experience life without the basic sustenance of clean water — a reality that Neskantaga First Nation has had to deal with my whole life. Knowing this, it’s infuriating to witness the federal government offering lip service when an entire community’s health continues to be compromised.
Neskantaga isn’t the only First Nation that is having to boil their drinking water on a day-to-day basis. 26 Indigenous communities still have long-term boil water advisories in Canada: 144 such advisories have been lifted since November 2015. At least Seven out of 12 First Nations that are leading RAVEN’s Breathing Lands campaign have experienced, or are experiencing, water quality issues in their communities.
Sub-header: Water Crises in Treaty No. 9 Nations
Attawapiskat First Nation — who initiated the Treaty No. 9 claim known here as “the Breathing Lands campaign” — declared a state of emergency in 2019 because of water quality issues on their reserve. Harmful levels of chemical byproducts were found in the community’s water supply, causing Attawapiskat’s water to be so polluted they couldn’t even bathe in it. Imagine: having to tell your kids not to wash their hands or drink from the tap. Having no water to bathe in, no water to cook with, and nothing safe to drink. Members of Attawapiskat First Nation were told that, should they have prolonged exposure to the polluted water, they could experience consequences ranging from skin irritations to increased risk of cancer.
In a CBC news article, former Chief Ignace Gull of Attawapiskat First Nation said,
“Attawapiskat should be drinking the same quality of water the people in Ontario and Canada take for granted. We shouldn’t be going through this kind of stuff, to declare a state of emergency. If this happened in Timmins, they would deal with it the same day.”
And there’s more. Eabametoong First Nation has been on a long-term boil water advisory for 22 years. When the water treatment centre caught on fire in 2018, forcing the Nation to evacuate for three weeks, Chief Solomon Atlookan said this in a CBC article,
“We have a $12 million new water treatment plant and yet we still have to do a water advisory. So there should be no reason why we can’t have the same type of water system as anybody else in Canada … And of course we’re thankful for running water and all that but there’s still those things that have to be met. We are Canadians, as well.”
In 2005, over 800 members evacuated Kashechewan First Nation because E.coli was found in their water supply. The remote First Nation was under a boil water advisory since 2003, causing sores and lesions that wouldn’t heal when the E.coli outbreak occurred. Kashechewan also deals with seasonal flooding each spring due to climate change, causing significant water damage and mold to houses that impacts residents’ water and health.
Tyson Wesley, a teen at the time of the E.coli outbreak in 2005, remembers
“…the airport and these tents full of doctors and nurses checking us for skin conditions. I remember having skin issues and my mother, she contracted E. coli during this… I don’t know about what others feel or think about it, but for me, I was only a teenager, it was so traumatic.”
My mother would have been outraged if our tap water was causing wounds that wouldn’t heal, or if she couldn’t take a shower, or she couldn’t even get me a glass of water from the tap. I’m sure municipal and provincial governments would have quickly provided clean water to my settler community. Yet, since Canada perpetuates systemic racism toward Indigenous Peoples, boil water advisories last for decades in Indigenous communities.
Sub-header: Upholding Environmental Justice
As the Breathing Lands challenge aims to prove, colonial systems allow for unlawful resource extraction in Treaty No. 9, leaving Indigenous Nations to live with the destruction of their sacred homelands with little say or compensation. These are the forces that contribute to the pollution of clean drinking water. Indigenous jurisdiction — the right to say no to resource extraction on a Nation-to-Nation level of governance — is needed to protect the life-giving water that so many human and non-human communities need to survive.
First Nations have launched legal challenges in the hopes of renewing how sacred treaties they originally agreed to are implemented. The Treaty No. 9 Breathing Lands claim, led by 12 First Nations, is a legal act of resistance to not only protect 35 billion tonnes of carbon held in the James Bay lowlands, but also to protect the rivers and lakes that sustain all of life.
Slow work is being done toward reconciliation. Acting in solidarity with the 12 First Nations leading the Breathing Lands campaign is a catalyst for reconciliation. Whether it be donating, holding a fundraiser, or learning about the campaign online and talking about it with your friends and family, we can all help Neskantaga and the eleven other Nations protect their homelands — and water — by taking action this World Water Day.
Donate: raventrust.com/breathing-lands
