By Xavier Kataquapit
Jeronimo Kataquapit has made us all proud for his ability to live up to the title of his grassroots movement ‘Here We Stand – Call To Action’.
Jeronimo took the opportunity Monday to speak to Mushkegowuk Council chiefs as they prepared for the Thursday July 17 meeting with the federal government regarding Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, which encompasses the Building Canada Act. Jeronimo told leadership that we need to take a stand against the Acts and take action to protect our communities, First Nation rights and the lands and waterways we all live on.
First Nations across the country have been preparing for this summit in Ottawa with the Prime Minister and his representatives. It must have been a moving presentation for Mushkegowuk Council as Jeronimo repeated his message of protecting the land, the water, the animals and to ask leadership to think of the people, the youth and the future generations. They would be the ones affected by developments along the Attawapiskat River in what is being called the Ring of Fire mining region, major projects that could be approved under Bill C-5, and Ontario’s Bill 5, similarly problematic legislation that subverts First Nations’ rights. Jeronimo reminded everyone that these bills did not apply free, prior and informed consent from First Nations during their development before passing into law.
After his presentation, in a respectful gesture of disagreement and protest, Jeronimo, Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Sylvia Koostachin-Metatawabin and her two council members, Xavier Wheesk and Paul Wesley, then left the meeting chamber to avoid the next presentation by Wyloo, the key mining company operating in the very heart the Ring of Fire.
When Jeronimo and the Attawapiskat First Nation leadership returned to the meeting, it must have created a lasting impact as, later that day, the chiefs voted in support of new resolutions to guide the direction in how to deal with Bill C-5 and Bill 5. The chiefs voted in favour of a resolution to officially support Jeronimo Kataquapit and his Here We Stand – Call To Action grassroots movement to occupy the Attawapiskat River in collaboration with Neskantaga First Nation. The Mushkegowuk Council also voted in favour of a resolution to financially support the movement to allow them to continue their protest in protection of the land and waterway.
In additional news, several First Nations in Ontario have also launched a major constitutional challenge against Ontario’s Bill 5 and Canada’s Bill C-5. The nine First Nations of Alderville, Aroland, Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, Ginoogaming Wabauskang, Apitipi Anicinapek, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninwug and Oneida Nation of the Thames are challenging these new bills stating that ‘they severely threaten their rights to self determine their ways of life on their homeland territories, the environment and fundamental human rights.’
I’ve been following Jeronimo, his brother Jonathan and their parents James Kataquapit and Monique Edwards since they started their journey from Attawapiskat on June 16. Jeronimo is an accomplished videographer and photographer who documented their journey by freighter canoe and then shared his message and images on twice daily live streams on Facebook through a portable satellite internet link. In all his presentations, his message was consistent in wanting to protect the land, the water and the animals, not just along the Attawapiskat River, but in what is known as the Hudson Bay Lowland.
In truth, I never fully understood the importance of this territory until Jeronimo started his campaign. To me and to many First Nation people, this land is important because this is where our lifeblood originates and where the natural foods and animals we harvest come from. Through Jeronimo’s awareness campaign, I learned that the Hudson Bay Lowland, a natural environment nearly 400,000 square kilometers wrapped around the Ontario side of James and Hudson Bay, are not just pristine wilderness. This is a critical environmental system known as a carbon sink, a natural environment that absorbs and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada has described the Hudson Bay Lowland, as ‘the second largest peatland complex on the globe, storing between 30 to 39 billion tonnes of soil carbon.’ Destroying, disrupting or disturbing this carbon sink would not only release this carbon but also take away this critical mechanism of absorbing atmospheric carbon.
In the age of accelerating climate change and global warming, we do not need to be destroying the natural systems that are helping to fight global warming. We need to protect this natural system because it will literally affect all of humanity. Scientists and environment advocates have admitted that we have already gone past the point of avoiding critical levels of global warming. In a recent interview on iPolitics, David Suzuki has stated that “it’s too late” for the fight against climate change and that we should instead prepare to deal with this future reality. Jeronimo and his campaign fully understand this reality and protecting the vital environmental carbon sink of the Hudson Bay Lowland is not just an important First Nation issue, it is part of a larger fight to protect all of humanity in the coming decades.
https://underthenorthernsky.com/