Niibi Bimaadiziwin
Water is life
Miigwetch ikwe miia nibi Kinagajitowin
Thank you, Women, for taking care of the Water
- 1 Mazinegiishigookwe Bédard (2021) explains that “ “Anishinaabeg” is the word for those “nations” roo (...)
- 2 The term “Turtle Island” is an Indigenous name which refers to the colonial continent of North Amer (...)
1In many traditional Anishinaabeg1 worldviews and beliefs, Nibi (Water), the “lifeblood of Mother Earth” (Perez & Longboat, 2008, p. 191), is viewed as a sacred, spiritual, living and healing force who is inexorably linked to the life and health of all living beings. For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island2 have passed on knowledge to protect Water and to build and maintain balanced and reciprocal relationships “with all of Creation” (McGreggor, 2008, p. 26). For Anishinaabe people and other First Nation communities, Water connects past and future generations and, as with everything else on this Earth, involves a relationship based on interconnectedness, care and responsibility. In contrast to Indigenous ontology, Western, colonial societies founded on capitalism, commodify Water, treating it as a profitable resource to be exploited for economic purposes (Atleo & Boron, 2022). Bodies of Water are being destroyed or contaminated by (non-Indigenous) human action or industrialism-induced climate change. As a result, Canada is currently facing a Water crisis that is especially affecting First Nation, Métis and Inuit populations (Arsenault, 2021; June & Woolford, 2024). As in other countries, this “ecocide”, understood as the extensive damage, negative modification, destruction or loss of territorial ecosystems, is linked to cultural genocide (Short, 2010). In the context of Indigenous Land dispossession and displacement, and of irresponsible resource extraction in Canada and other settler countries (i.e. United States, New Zealand, Australia, etc.), First Nation Land defenders have been, and continue to be at the forefront of ecological activism, encouraging people to “care about the ‘critical infrastructure’ of intact ecosystems that demand respect and reciprocity” and are “leading the way for more sustainable ways of relating to Mother Earth […]” (Atleo & Boron, 2022, p. 11). Questions that arise in this work then, is how can settlers and non-Indigenous people, especially decision-makers and institutions, create space for, and be led by Indigenous science and knowledge? How can people coming from a Eurocentric or anthropocentric standpoint, cultivate and sustain cosmic relationships Land (including Water), where they are no longer taken for granted but honoured as spiritual, life-giving forces, embedded in the fabric of the universe? (Craft, 2014).
2Indigenous women also have a special role in water protection because they carry and give life - they have a special bond to Water (Dennis & Bell, 2020). As expressed by Tammy Charles (2024), an Anishinaabe woman from Ontario, Canada: “We are Water protectors. I feel that connection to her. She is my relative, she is my family. […] Like a woman, she gives life, and without her, nothing would grow”. Among the barriers to Water protection and environmental protection is violence against Indigenous women, which has a legacy so deep-rooted in Canadian society that a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was conducted. Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi strives to offer important insight on how to engage and relate to Water in respectful ways. As a collective of daughters, mothers, aunties, sisters and cousins who sit together to protect the Water, organizers Dara Wawatie-Chabot (Algonquin from Kitigan Zibi and Barrier Lake, Québec), Erin Bell (from the Haida Nation in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia), Rae-Anna Whiteduck (Anishinaabe from Neyaashiinigmiing, Ontario and Kitigan-Zibi, Québec), are engaged in Water protection, activism and public education. They advocate for Indigenous rights, sovereignty and resurgence. Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi offers the opportunity to better grasp the issues that concern Indigenous communities and to learn about decolonial ways of relating to Water, Land, Animals and each other. As stated by Wawatie-Chabot, Bell and Whiteduck (2024),
“Water is sacred, water is life, and we believe that we must unite to protect the blood of Mother Earth. We came together in ceremony to listen, learn, pray and grow from each other as human beings. We have taken a role to reclaim what was stolen from our families and ancestors, so that we can pass it on to our children as it is their inherent right. We envision a space where people can come together and learn from each other and our Elders in a good way.”
3The article is the result of a collaboration between the two authors, who share a common trajectory as parents, activists and scholars, but who differ in their starting points. Our intention is to tell the story of this collaboration process and present our conversation on Water protection, Indigenous rights and relationship buildings. We seek to disrupt Eurocentric approaches to knowledge production by centering the relationship that has been built between ourselves, using a first - person perspective.
4We met in May of 2024 at l’École citoyenne d’été de l’Université du Québec en Outaouais in Gatineau, Québec, on Unceded Algonquin Territory, during a presentation on Water Protection. After the presentation, Emmanuelle approached Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi to inquire about how she could help increase awareness of the issues being presented, either as a professor, researcher or citizen. We understand that at the center of allyship is a meaningful relationship that must be built over time, and this is where our (Dara and Emmanuelle) relationship started to evolve.
- 3 See pages 10-11 of this article to read about the how Indigenous languages have been subjected to a (...)
5We began to discuss the possibility of co-writing an article about the importance of Water and the structural dynamics of ecological degradation and settler-colonial violence. Over the course of several months, we engaged in conversations by email, phone call and text messaging to exchange ideas and determine the most meaningful approach to convey the vision underlying Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi and Indigenous-led water protection. We agreed on having a conversation outdoors near the water to uphold the value of oral tradition and Indigenous pedagogy, and to present our conversation in writing through a first-person perspective. The interview was conducted in English3 and the abstract was translated in Algonquin-Kitigan Zibi dialect by Kokom Shirley Tolley, Anishinàbe grandmother and Anishinàbemowin language and culture educator from and working for Kitigan Zibi Anishinàbeg, Quebec. We hope to have the article fully translated into Anishinàabemowin at a later date and share a narrative version of the abstract on a collaborative YouTube© channel “Expanding Our Relations” ([https://www.youtube.com/@ExpandingOurRelations]). The content was written and edited collaboratively to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information. The bibliography reflects our commitment to prioritizing, as much as possible, the work of Indigenous authors, as part of a broader effort to promote epistemic justice and recognize the value of Indigenous knowledge systems in the development of academia. Indigenous knowledge predates Western knowledge on these Lands and has supported the management of thriving ecosystems for thousands of years before colonization. As a meaningful solution to various social issues rooted in colonial violence, decolonization must center on Indigenous pedagogies and ontologies to meaningfully disrupt Eurocentric ontological superiority, which includes the presentation and transmission of knowledge. As noted by Turner (2006, p. 98), one of the challenges involves discerning how to “characterize the distinct forms of knowledge embedded in indigenous communities” :
“Phrases like ‘traditional knowledge’ and ‘indigenous ways of knowing’ have become commonplace in both mainstream and indigenous cultures, yet we are not at all clear about what they mean in relation to the legal and political discourses of the dominant culture. Indigenous peoples assert that they have distinct ways of knowing the world. If we are to sustain this claim in the dominant culture, we will have to be clear about what these forms of knowing are, and more importantly, what role they ought to play in asserting and protecting the rights, sovereignty, and nationhood of our communities” (p. 98).
6Engaging in decolonial practices and politics and moving towards a new form of “postcolonial” society (Battiste et al., 2002, p. 88) cannot be accomplished only by Indigenous people, and the workload must be shared with those who have historically benefited from the systematic erasure of Indigenous peoples and cultures.
7Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Kwey, Dara Wawatie-Chabot nindijinikaz, Anishinabekwe nin. Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg ashidj Mitchikinibikoinik nindonjiba. Kwey, I am Dara Wawatie-Chabot. I am an Algonquin person from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg and Algonquins of Barriere Lake Reserves in Quebec. I have been studying political science at the University of Ottawa since 2014, working towards completion of my undergraduate degree while healing from intergenerational trauma, navigating COVID-19 pandemic, having two children, and becoming a single parent. I have been an environmental and Indigenous rights organizer, activist and advocate since 2016, beginning in youth empowerment, Indigenous cultural competency, moving into environmentalism, then towards Green New Deal mobilization which transitioned into Indigenous-led Just Transition. Through my studies, I began to understand the complexities of settler-colonialism, resource extraction and globalization, and how Indigenous communities continue to be impacted by these industries across the globe. My passion is in public education, decolonization, social justice and relationship-building. I believe that the restitution of Indigenous governance and ecological management is the solution to the climate crisis and has the potential to create a healthier way of living for everyone who calls Turtle Island home. I also believe in international solidarity because of the ways that imperialism connects our struggles through displacement, dispossession and forced dependency. While Indigenous people may be the ones defending the land and water on the frontlines, we still need the support of everyone to challenge bureaucratic processes designed to exclude and silence our voices. Because we navigate ongoing institutionalized violence and erasure, it is imperative that those who do not carry the emotional and psychological burdens of settler-colonial oppression use their privilege to advance such issues as land and water protection. We cannot carry this work alone. This is why I believe in collaboration and relationship-building. This is why, when Emmanuelle approached Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi, I was keen to work together to find a way to amplify our message of unity and a healthier world for all our children. We owe it to our ancestors and our descendants to do what we can.
8Emmanuelle Larocque: Mon nom est Emmanuelle Larocque et j’habite une communauté francophone minoritaire de l’Est Ontarien sur le territoire traditionnel et non cédé des peuples Algonquins Anishinabewaki et Omàmìwininìwag. My name is Emmanuelle Larocque, I am a settler of European descent and Social Work professor at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (Canada) from a francophone minority community in Eastern Ontario. As a social worker, mother and activist, I returned to academia in 2018 to complete a Ph.D. with the hope of contributing to transforming and “greening” social work practices and pedagogies in ways that would allow my profession to be more proactively involved in climate-change and biodiversity loss-related issues and re-center it’s values and objectives around socioecological and intergenerational justice. From an ecosocial standpoint (Boetto, 2017; 2019), I am especially interested in deconstructing dominant ways of thinking, being and doing and contributing to re-storying relationships to self, others and nature in ways that promote decoloniality and relationality to inform transformative practices and pedagogies. In this conversation, I am taking on the role of active learner. Through this format, I am also recognizing my privileged academic position and using it to reach a broader audience of learners. As a non-Indigenous person and active learner, I experienced this collaboration as both humbling and decentering. It is leading me to an ongoing process of deconstruction and deeper listening, challenging me to reflect critically on my own positionality and assumptions.
9Emmanuelle Larocque: Thank you, Dara for taking the time to speak about Water protection from the Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi perspective. I first acknowledge that we are meeting today on Maple Island (located in Ottawa, Canada), on traditional and unceded Algonquin-Anishinaabe territory. Could you tell me why you suggested that we meet here, specifically?
- 4 The Gatineau Park is a conservation park and the largest (361square kilometre) green space in the N (...)
- 5 After more than twenty years of offering their cultural programming on Victoria Island, Indigenous (...)
10Dara Wawatie-Chabot: I chose Maple Island because I discovered this quiet little space walking around last year. It’s peaceful and not overcrowded, which is rare in the city. There are many birds here and, when you walk closer to the water, you can see fish and other wildlife. You don’t really get that type of experience in the city unless you go into Gatineau Park4. I really enjoy spending time on the Land, so when I find spaces like this one, I just keep going back. I give offerings to the Water, take time to pray and just enjoy some space from the busy city life. Especially now, since we lost access to Victoria Island, which used to be open for culture and ceremony use. Indigenous experiences5 used to be located there, and we would host various community events like National Indigenous People's Day. We would gather and spend time together - but after they closed it to clean-up contamination, we never regained access. They’re still cleaning it up from the contamination but now, (name of a non-Indigenous development company) is developing the area.
11Emmanuelle Larocque: Could you tell me about your background?
12Dara Wawatie-Chabot: I grew up with my mom’s side of the family, who’s from Rapid Lake, in the Parc de la Vérendrye, Quebec. The people from the Rapid Lake community are still very land-based people: they spend time on the land every fall and every spring during the hunting and spawning seasons. In the summertime, there are many gatherings and ceremonies. Many still speak fluently in Anishinàbemowin, our traditional language, and most of my family on my mom’s side are fluent. It’s only the younger generations that are losing the ability to speak our language. My other siblings and I, for example, were not raised with the language. Out of all my siblings, I understand the most, but I still can't fully participate in a conversation.
13Emmanuelle Larocque: Can you tell me more about why that is? Why is it that your generation did not learn the traditional language (Anishinàbemowin)?
- 6 Residential schools are a part of many colonial politics that were used to intend to eradicate the (...)
14Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Both of my grandfathers on my mom and dad’s side of the family went to residential schools6 while my maternal grandmother went to Indian day school, and both my parents went to day school. These institutions were used to remove Indigenous children from their families, from their culture and instill Eurocentric, Canadian values, beliefs and work ethics. To be a part of working society, you need to speak the same language as everyone here, so Residential and Day Schools either taught you French or English.
15The Residential Schools and Day Schools, along with other assimilation policies, still have an impact to this day. The psychological impacts are especially important because people who experienced the trauma directly experienced high levels of substance use, addictions, poverty, unemployment and homelessness, those issues continue to be exacerbated in subsequent generations (their children and grandchildren). My parents, for example, are part of those first and second-generation survivors. They were raised by Residential School survivors, so they experienced and witnessed many forms of abuse and neglect which came from their parents never learning how to love or care for their children properly, because of what they had experienced in Residential School. My parents didn’t go to residential school but, from the stories that my dad used to tell me, they still experienced violence within the educational system. Children shouldn't have to go through that (sexual, physical, mental and emotional abuse). To find your place in society, you must feel valued and loved, and understand that there’s a place for you, that you’re supported and that resources exist. That was just not something that was granted to Indigenous children through these systems, so it translated into low self-worth and low self-esteem, and even death and suicide. To protect their children, many Indigenous people stopped living their way of life because they understood that it came with consequences. To protect their children, they didn't speak the language, they didn't teach them the culture. They just wanted them to assimilate into Canadian culture so they wouldn't have to be separated from their family or experience the violence that they had experienced.
16Emmanuelle Larocque: That language barrier and loss of traditional language stems from the colonial structure and colonial violence that you mention. Is Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi a way to connect back to that traditional knowledge? Would you like to talk about what Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi means and what ideas are behind it?
17Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Rae-Anna’s grandmother translated “Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi” and it means “the women who protect the Water”, or “the women who carry the Water”. When you carry a baby, it’s your responsibility to protect it and make sure that it feels safe. When you’re carrying the Water, it’s this similar responsibility to take care. That’s why we call ourselves water protectors because we have this responsibility to take care. As life givers and as children, our first experiences with Water are in the womb. Even before you come into this world, you’re sitting in Water - the amniotic fluid. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to survive. When we come out of the womb, we’re made of Water and we all need clean Water to survive. While Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi speaks of Indigenous women’s role in Water protection because of their special relationship and connection to Water, it’s not just Indigenous women or people that have the responsibility to take care of the Water. We are just among the closest connected to that traditional knowledge that teaches reciprocity and care for future generations.
18Emmanuelle Larocque: Can you explain why women are seen as Water protectors?
19Dara Wawatie-Chabot: It goes back to being life givers. When your fetus is in the womb, you have to protect yourself, slow down, keep moving to stay strong and healthy, and eat the right foods. It's about understanding balance and how to take care of yourself. There’s this parallel between taking care of the life that’s within you, the Water that’s within you and taking care of the Water that’s around you in that same way. When you put something into your body, it becomes a part of you. To live a healthy life, to be in a healthy world, means to consume healthy things and to take care of these things to make sure they're healthy. The foods that you eat can impact your health and your mind state. In thinking about sustenance, it’s about knowing that we’re not separate from our ecosystem. Reciprocity between humans and other living beings means taking care of our ecosystem which we rely on for survival - whether it’s for food, for clean water, or for breathable air. It’s a circular understanding that the Water is taking care of me, and by taking care of the Water, the food takes care of me, as I take care of the food; the Land takes care of me, I take care of the Land and so on and so forth. It’s important to break free from the perspective that humans are central to everything because we really are not. In the history of the Earth, we haven’t been here for that long and the way that we’re going, we won't be here much longer either. If we want that to change then WE need to change, and we need to understand the relationships that we have with everything are central. We’re not central, the relationships between everything in the world are central.
20Emmanuelle Larocque: That inter-relationality therefore central, where it’s not only about protecting and caring for the Water but it’s also about understanding the links between all elements and living beings.
21Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Yes, because the Water feeds everything, it gives life to everything, but it’s not just the Water, it’s also the air and the oxygen. It’s also fires, natural and controlled fires, which is part of Indigenous ecological management. Some plants and tree species can only grow after a fire and some places need to have fires to manage overgrowth. I highly recommend the book “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013), which explains Indigenous science and traditional ecological management practices. For example, when we pick the medicines, we’re clearing space for other plants to grow so that we help balance the biodiversity that exists. Just like certain animals. If there’s an overpopulation of a certain animal, like wolves for example, they might wipe out the deer population. But if the deer population gets wiped out, then other plant species are going to overgrow. It’s about understanding the cycle and our responsibilities within this cycle. A healthy ecosystem must be balanced for long-term sustainability. Indigenous ecological management is highly scientific, rooted in observation and deduction, validation and adaptation.
- 7 On Bill 97, see, for example Yanez-Layton, C. (2025, June), Why Québec’s forestry reform is facing (...)
22Emmanuelle Larocque: With contradictory projects such as Bill 97, on the modernization of forestry management (in Québec), or Bill 5 in Ontario, which namely dismantles protections for Ontario’s most vulnerable species, it seems evermore important to turn to Indigenous knowledge and ecological management to make decisions that will prioritize long-term health of ecosystems. There is indeed a widespread opposition to the proposed legislation from Indigenous people, environmental organizations and other social actors, such as farmers7. The decisions are impacting the rights of Indigenous communities. In line with these detrimental political decisions, Ikwe can be seen as a gateway to advocate for Indigenous rights and sovereignty. Could you tell me more about the movement Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi? Who is involved? What do you hope to convey through this movement?
23Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi is not really a movement but more of a small collective of friends and chosen sisters who were advocating in our own capacities for protection of the Land, the Water and future generations.
24Aside from myself, Erin Bell and Rae-Anna Whiteduck are also very involved. They’re my chosen family because in my hardest times, they stood by me and believed in me, and I try to do the same. Erin Bell is from Haida Gwaii, Old Masset in British-Columbia, on the very remote northern west coast. She’s lived here in Ottawa pretty much her whole life. Erin and her mom Rose have been important in helping with repatriation work at the Museum of History and Civilization, repatriating stolen artifacts to communities and building a different relationship with the people to care properly for what was taken. Rae-Anna is a knowledge keeper, Land and Water activist, a traditional dancer and Water ceremony carrier. She works closely with her various teachers to help care for the community and the knowledge being passed down. I became closer with Rae-Anna when I was trying to raise awareness on what was happening with the Near Surface Disposal Facility [a project from the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories] in Chalk River, Ontario, where they didn’t obtain consent from Algonquin communities in Quebec who would be impacted by the proposed site construction, which eventually became a federal court issue. Rae-Anna decided that she wanted to help by hosting ceremonies across the territory, bringing people together to learn and pray for the water.
25We worked together to bring that vision to life and successfully hosted three ceremonies across some parts of our territory. It’s hard because we’re all still living through the impacts of genocide, assimilation and ongoing settler-colonial violence. We constantly grieve the loss of family members and relatives, so when we’re doing this work, it can become emotionally exhausting. We understand that if we don’t speak up and do something about these issues, our children and future generations will be left to take on this work without a strong foundation. This work is rooted in love because we want to do our part to stop that cycle of harm.
26Emmanuelle Larocque: You mention that the work that you do through Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi is a way to bring that vision to life. At the same time, the collective seems to be working together to tackle the deeper, structural issues at hand. Can you speak about the impacts of colonialism on the ways Water is perceived and managed?
27Dara Wawatie-Chabot: My education has taught me that the root of oppression comes from the desire to access and hoard resources. But when everyone has enough to live a healthy life, we can work together to make sure that we always have enough for everyone (principles of equitable redistribution). Wealth can be equitable and generational and should be accessible to everyone - but it depends on our definition of wealth. Why do corporations get to own the Water, then destroy the Water and then sell us back dirty Water that was cleaned? That just doesn’t make sense. Why don’t you just leave the Water alone to begin with and protect it? Unfortunately, it’s not the mentality because people just want to make a profit, creating a system of dependency that forces us to rely on a system rooted in devastation. This is why the water is sick, the animals are sick, and we’re sick - and governments and industries try to convince us that it's our own fault and we can simply choose better; it’s all connected.
28Emmanuelle Larocque: You’re highlighting contrasting relationships with Water. From a colonial perspective, Water is mainly seen as a resource and commodity to be managed, controlled and exploited for economic gain, typically benefitting the privileged. In contrast, from the Anishinàbe or broader Indigenous worldview, Water is viewed as a sacred and interconnected living being that should be respected, nurtured and honored. Could you share your thoughts on the significance of Water, your personal relationship to Water, and what that relationship means to you?
29Dara Wawatie-Chabot: The Water has always taken care of us. It has always shown us what’s important and what’s happening. When you observe the water, you understand what’s happening around you. For example, when you observe what is happening up the river, you can see the impact it has down the river. In these contemporary times, if there’s contamination up the river and wastes are being dumped into the river, like nuclear waste, for example, which is the drive behind Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi, you see all the impacts down the river. We can’t swim in the river anymore. People do, but they’re not supposed to because they can get very sick. Large amounts of fish are dying, and you can see bodies and bodies of fish just floating. That’s not normal. These are signs that something is wrong. Even within our own bodies, like, if you're bleeding a certain way or if something happens to your blood, these are signals that something else is wrong, right?
30Emmanuelle Larocque: By observing the Water and by learning to listen to its teachings, you then gain insight about the health of living beings who rely on the Water. This sounds spiritual but also scientific.
31Dara Wawatie-Chabot: There are different forms of science that exist, and Indigenous people are very scientific indeed, but nobody really believes that. We first need to ask ourselves, what is science? It is a framework to observe, have your hypothesis and have your conclusions and then it’s a cycle of doing that repeatedly. And we’ve been here for thousands and thousands of years. It has been carbon dated that we’ve been here for over 10 000 years. By being here for that long, we would have learned something. We learned a lot. Colonialism has only been here for a couple of hundred years, and it’s already caused such devastation to the environment. On top of that, Indigenous knowledge is being validated every single year from Western science. It’s so frustrating because, “yeah, we’ve been trying to tell you all of this, you just didn’t believe us because of the racist assumption that we're not scientific, that we're not civilized and that we don’t know what we're doing, and we needed your help”. I'm sorry, but I think you’re the ones that need our help. However, if you’re not willing to listen, then nothing is going to change, and nothing is going to get better.
32Emmanuelle Larocque: That listening part seems to be a crucial and essential first step to creating space for exchanges and dialogues to happen. Would you say that’s one of the goals of Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi? To foster more meaningful connections so people can listen more, and learn about these different ways of being and of relating not only to each other but also to the Water and to all other relations?
33Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Yes, it’s really based on building relationships. Relationality is something that’s central to Indigenous knowledge systems and it’s something that is so removed from Eurocentric societies, especially in today’s world where we live in a neoliberal, capitalist society, where everyone is just working for themselves to get the highest amount of profits. This way of being is deeply rooted in extraction, in removing people from the Land and in hoarding wealth and resources. That’s the complete opposite to what is needed to make changes. Many academic articles explain the importance of relationships in this work. From a psychological standpoint, when you’re trying to help people make amends, like if you’re doing couple or family therapy, the biggest part of that is learning how to listen to each other without trying to justify yourself or prove that you’re right. Even if the intentions were good, that doesn't matter. What matters is the impact and if you’re still not willing to listen and just be humble enough to recognize that you’ve caused harm to somebody else, how are you ever going to make it better? It’s just about power because a lot of the work that people are doing to Indigenize different spaces is performative. Like buying or integrating Indigenous artwork with the intention of being more inclusive but without doing anything to address the power dynamics and the way that these systems work. It’s still not focused on building better relationships.
34Emmanuelle Larocque: I’m hearing that there’s still a missing piece, the deeper, relational piece which is missing or overlooked in this Indigenization process. While some people or institutions are engaging with the idea of Indigenization, it remains at the surface level, without truly making the effort to do the transformational relational work that is needed.
35Dara Wawatie-Chabot: It’s going to take more than just a few people who care. We need to also look at power systems-power structures in general. Hierarchies don’t work and hoarding of wealth and resources is also about hoarding of power and decision-making abilities. We claim to live in a democracy, but what’s democratic when half of the population doesn't even know what's going on and you don't give them enough time or resources to really understand what's going on? That’s not democracy because people don't have that reciprocal connection to society. If we don't have that reciprocity in those relationships with the people around us, that just shows that there’s a huge disconnect in the way that things are working.
36Emmanuelle Larocque: Can you speak to how Water is being managed by those superpowers and high-level decision-makers and what impact that has, especially for Indigenous communities?
37Dara Wawatie-Chabot: For starters, there’s the ongoing Water crisis. Most reserves and communities don’t have access to clean water.
- 8 For more about water insecurity and the water crisis, see, for example: Arsenault, R. (2021). Water (...)
38Emmanuelle Larocque: In Canada, that’s quite a high percentage, right? Many communities are still affected by polluted Water or by inaccessibility to clean Water8. And yet, it seems that we rarely hear about this ongoing social and ecological justice issue in the news.
- 9 Justin Trudeau is the former Prime Minister of Canada (2015 to 2025).
39Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Interestingly, Justin Trudeau9 platformed on how he was going to fix the Water crisis but what happened was that many of the First Nations ended up taking the federal government to court. The government fought back, because they always fight back. Even if someone platforms on fixing this issue, the system is not set up to respond to what’s being promised on a platform. Instead of fixing the issue, the courts decided a settlement. Once you agree to take that money, which most people do because we’re all living in poverty, you can’t go back and fight it again. It’s like your hush money, like “stay quiet, now leave us alone”, but in the end, there’s still no clean Water.
- 10 A reserve is land set aside by the federal government for the use and occupancy of First Nation gro (...)
40There are various issues to be spoken about, like contamination of the natural Water sources and forced relocation which pushes people away from the clean Water. The reason they put people on reserves10 was to make space for extractive industries and settlement for Europeans. It was about imperial expansion on our Lands, so they took all the spaces they wanted access to, like Ottawa and Gatineau, and pushed us away onto reserves. They hoped we would eventually die and be wiped out on our own, but we didn’t. So now we have all of these different issues and clean Water is one of them. The contamination from various companies, like mining industries, including uranium and lithium mining, are having devastating effects on the Water and the Land. This extensive mining is happening not just here, but across the world, like in South America, the Democratic Republic of Congo and so on. These are Canadian companies, amongst others, that are causing human rights issues across the world.
41What’s happening across the world, due to colonialism, settler - colonialism, neoliberalism and capitalism, is a framework for genocide. These theories are interconnected and led to the creation of the Nation-State – this is what created “Western democracy” through industrialism. It’s out of sight out of mind thing too. As you said earlier, people don’t talk about it because they don't want you to talk about it, right? As a researcher and university student, I'm lucky to know so much about these issues and the especially deeper, structural issues that lie behind them, and I’m constantly still learning. It was extremely distressful to first encounter this critical understanding of the world around me because although I didn’t have the language to articulate what I was learning and observing, I knew that it was inherently violent and that these structures are dependent on genocide and erasure of Indigenous knowledge. The erasure of information and the controlled access to information is strategic because if there’s public outrage over an issue, the government is pressured to respond to it. If people don’t know about something, who’s going to do anything about it? When you dispose of and censor information, people don’t see it anymore, and they go back to dissonance. It’s like ignorance, but it is now a choice to avoid accountability because we know it’s happening in 2025.
42Emmanuelle Larocque: In connection to all this, and the deeper historical context behind it, what are some of the things you’re hoping to accomplish through your work? Water protection seems to be at the heart of Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi but it also goes beyond Water protection. How do you hope to reach people, or what messages do you hope that Ikwe will provide or put out there for people to understand the importance of Water and the intergenerational justice that’s deeply intertwined with Water protection?
43Dara Wawatie-Chabot: I can't speak for everyone that I work with because we’re all doing different capacities of similar work, but for me, I've always been involved in uplifting the voices of those who aren’t being heard. I’m here in the National Capital Region. I have many friends and connections in different spaces in the environmental movement as well as within the education system. I used to be more involved in politics and I do a lot of public speaking, workshops and presentations. I try to make everything accessible to people who are willing to listen. I’m not out there fighting people who don’t want to listen because that’s just a waste of my energy. But for those who do want to listen, I just try to tell them about what’s happening because most people just don’t know what’s happening or they don’t understand how these different issues are connected. A part of that involves showing up to different events and spaces when I’m called upon because I have a responsibility to show up, because that’s my way of showing up for communities. I participated in different protests at first but now I focus mainly on public education spaces. Through that process of showing up, I learned how to speak to people and learned how to connect with different people.
44Emmanuelle Larocque: Do you have a particular contribution that you hold dear to your heart or felt was impactful?
- 11 Fridays for Future is a youth-led movement that was initiated by the Swedish young person, Greta Th (...)
45Dara Wawatie-Chabot: I would say that my biggest impact was when I was helping to spread awareness for the Quebec Moose Moratorium for sport hunting. That happened in Quebec a few years ago, at the beginning of COVID. Our communities have known that there was a huge population decline in different animals. But there is a group of people and women and Elders from my mom’s community who were advocating to stop sport hunting to allow the moose population time to recover. For a few years, it was just a few grandmothers and their families out in the bush, standing up against deforestation and clear cutting. We needed help, we needed people. During that time, the Fridays for Future11 movement was happening, and many protests were going on across the world. It started to pick up here in Canada, and I was asked to go speak at the biggest national march in Ottawa. I was pregnant with my daughter at the time. I asked for permission from the community to go speak about the issue concerning Moose population decline during the march as I wanted to ask for help. I wanted to ask people to come and to show up. The community agreed and they said “Yeah, go ahead, do it. You’re from our community. You can just speak and do these things”. So, I did. I wrote myself a script and I got up and stood in front of a crowd of 20 000 people to say, “You're walking on unceded Algonquin territory. This Land was never surrendered to treaty and yet we’re still here, we have all these issues. You’re talking about making change. If you want to make some change, go to the Parc de la Vérendrye, donate your money, spread awareness on this issue because the moose population is declining, and we need the moose to survive”.
46The bigger animals show us how healthy the ecosystem and the Land is, just like with the ocean. The bigger ocean animals, the more of them that there are, shows us how healthy the ocean is. The decline of these bigger species is a crisis on its own, you know? So, participating in that march gave me a whole other level of confidence, in being able to show up and do these things.
47And people did show up, they helped. They asked “How can I help? What should I do? Where can I go to find this information?”. It's based on relationships again. We’re not organizations, we’re not governments. It’s a lot of grassroots work, which is basically just people who care. So you have to know people and when people want to help, you have to start making those relationships and you have to do it in a good way. If you’re not building those relationships, it’s probably because you're not really going about it in the best way. Even if you have good intentions, you must learn how to exist with someone else who’s not yourself because we're all different. For example, what you think is a priority might not be the same as what we think is a priority.
48We’re talking about Water, but it's so much more than just the Water. It's also the animals, the trees, the plants, the medicines, the food systems, the air, the fire and infrastructure. All these things that are interconnected. A lot of it is linked to education because the education system is what perpetuates and reinforces all these different world views. So, if the education system is never evolving, we end up with children growing up thinking that a colonized life is the only way to exist. It’s important to give this information to people when it makes a difference, when they’re still open and flexible and willing to listen and to learn.
49Emmanuelle Larocque: How can non-Indigenous people learn to be more effective allies? Do you have any advice to share for those who are interested in helping and willing to listen?
50Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Make people uncomfortable. That is such a big deal, especially with this pressure to be politically correct and make space for all perspectives. But if you’re going to make space for perspectives that enable and support genocide, ecocide and femicide, how is that doing anything for anybody except creating a pathway for violence to occur? We see these things happening today where genocides are occurring over resources, and nobody wants to cause a disruption about it. Everyone just wants to keep their job and their homes when some of us don’t have any of those to begin with. People just want to be able to raise their kids in a safe environment while the rest of us are having our kids taken away. The burdens are falling onto us because we don’t have any other choice. If we don’t speak up these things are happening anyways. For people who live in a place of privilege, where you have access to power, where you have access to resources, where you’ve got a secure income, money and food every single day, half of those people or more can’t be bothered with even researching what is really happening.
51So, making people uncomfortable by asking them complicated questions, by pushing for systemic change in different institutions, like in the education system, the healthcare system, the child welfare system or in the political system, that’s where advocacy can really make a difference. Buying Indigenous artwork is great but what are you doing to provide opportunities for people and use that in a good way to prevent suicide, poverty, homelessness or gives people a meal on their table to be able to feed their children every day? The idea of mutual aid, where you cut out all the middle people of charities and organizations and sponsorship, is interesting in that sense. You just give money directly to people as they need it. If somebody needs money to help pay rent, help them. If there’s a single parent in your life, help them. Volunteer your time to help real people who need it. Stop relying on the government and expecting that these organizations are going to do it all because that’s still an extractive industry. That’s money paying for people’s salaries who already have all this comfort. Go out there and help the people who need it.
52Emmanuelle Larocque: So, one way of being an ally is to have the courage to disrupt hegemonic ways of thinking and doing. It’s about going back to the source and working on building relationships, is that right?
53Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Exactly, it’s about building relationships again and getting to know the issues and the people. It’s about knowing how to help them when they need it and how they need it rather than dictating how they need to be helped.
54Emmanuelle Larocque: On this theme of relationality, is there a story or an anecdote that would help people understand the relationship or spiritual connection between some Indigenous communities and Water? Or perhaps a personal story that helps explain what it means to be spiritually connected to Water?
55Dara Wawatie-Chabot: I don’t think it’s appropriate to share spiritual teachings to people who haven’t done the work to earn those teachings. It’s really about a relationship and about spending time with your Elders on the Land. Gaining those stories takes years of effort and building your memory to be able to recall those stories. For me, personally, the different stories that I heard were just in passing from different Elders that weren’t speaking directly to me. I remember hearing that story and then ten or fifteen years later, it just suddenly made sense. But if I wasn’t listening or didn’t have the opportunity to sit with the Elders, then I wouldn't have learned these teachings.
56Emmanuelle Larocque: If I understand correctly, the sharing of knowledge therefore involves a process and a history, where it’s about being there and being open to listening and even meriting the opportunity to hear those stories that are linked to spiritual and traditional knowledge.
57Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Yes. Having to earn it, and understanding the work that goes into earning it, like any relationship.
58Emmanuelle Larocque: In that sense, understanding that having a spiritual connection to Water takes that work. For example, you don’t just wake up one day and say “I'm spiritually connected to Water” without having done the work, having met those knowledge holders and having these discussions and relations.
59Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Yes, because even if people hear a story, not every single person is going to take it as what it’s being presented as. People may have a personal relationship to the Water which recognizes its inherently valuable position in our world, but the specific spiritual teachings that come from my community and the communities of others, I do not have permission to share in an article that de-personalizes the relationship to knowledge. Often, when people are sharing Indigenous knowledge, it’s being extracted and appropriated and people just use it however they want to use it. That knowledge is often being placed out of context, especially in the Western world. But our teachings, our languages and our knowledge were taken from us so we need to focus on restoring that for ourselves before we can give anything to anyone else. This is an important part of anyone’s healing process. For example, if you're coming from a highly traumatic childhood where you’ve got complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD), you can become codependent and constantly be taking care of everyone around you. If you want to change that, you must realize that you need to give to yourself first. You need to understand your limits and decide who is important and who deserves your energy. Many of our people are very traumatized, living with C-PTSD and are codependent. That’s why they have addictions. Addictions manifest differently. It’s not always substances. Sometimes it’s relationships, work, or sex, right? To undo that, you must learn about where you’re investing your energy and who you’re giving it to. Therefore, when we’re thinking about healing ourselves as a collective, we need to focus on ourselves first, on our children, our families and then we can work on our communities. It’s such a long process. So, if we're constantly giving to the entire world, what’s left for us, our children, our families and our communities?
60Emmanuelle Larocque: It’s a powerful message for people to understand because I don't feel like it’s something that’s properly understood – that refocusing inward to heal before turning the attention outward.
61Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Yes, that’s another form of extraction, where we’re expected to do all of the work when we’re not the ones who caused all of this damage, and we still have to navigate all of this violence that I mentioned on top of doing this work. If you’re not doing the work to understand why that’s important, then you’re not there yet to have that knowledge. You haven’t earned it yet.
62Emmanuelle Larocque: Thank you for allowing me to hear this and to underline the importance of the relational process that’s involved in learning traditional knowledge, the healing process that is fundamental to in Indigenous resurgence and the ways in which allies can learn to respect this process. For those who are interested in learning more about Indigenous involvement in Water protection or about Indigenous climate action, do you have any resources to recommend?
63Dara Wawatie-Chabot: Absolutely. Here in Canada, I recommend the Yellowhead Institute12. They’re constantly producing helpful information that brings together academic, grassroots and legal perspectives on all kinds of different issues dealing with settler colonialism on these lands and trying to help people understand the process of decolonization and how society continues to reaffirm colonization. They offer a critical analysis from various angles on issues that we're experiencing today. For environmental issues specifically, Indigenous climate action (ICA)13 is a great organization. They work with a lot of grassroots activists and analyze different environmental issues from a critical Indigenous perspective. They propose solutions and critique settler colonial approaches to environmental protection, which often end up reinforcing the same systems that created these problems in the first place. A third resource would be Sacred solar earth14 which is a sister organization to ICA. The biggest report that they published recently was the Indigenous just transition guide15. It was produced with the ICA and with the David Suzuki Foundation. It shows alternatives to the dominant energy framework, which is rooted in the fossil fuels industry, and provides knowledge on alternative energy pathways for communities including solar, wind and geothermal technologies. Braiding Knowledges Canada16 is another organization that has been working to empower diverse local projects to share their stories and propose meaningful solutions to environmental crises.
64Emmanuelle Larocque: Miigwech, thank you, Dara, for this meaningful conversation and for taking the time to share your knowledge and experiences. It is my hope that this article honours oral tradition and will help spread awareness about the work of Ikwe Ganawenindan Nibi in Water protection. The knowledge and experiences you have shared will surely help readers better understand the interconnection between Water protection, allyship, relationships, intergenerational justice, resistance, grieving, healing, resurgence and sovereignty.