Protecting Our Mother 2009:
Grassy Narrows to Ottawa!
Early this fall, the 2nd Walk for Mother Earth will leave from Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows First Nation), near Kenora. The youth-led walk will arrive in Ottawa on October 3, the anniversary of the signing of Treaty #3., stopping in communities across Ontario.
This year’s walk seeks to raise dialogue around the inherent links between the destruction of Mother Earth and the ongoing destruction of Indigenous cultures. The walk will be stopping in communities across the province to talk about protecting and healing the earth, as well as healing communities and the relationships between them.
Last year, a group of 22 youth from Grassy Narrows and several other First Nations communities walked over 1800 kilometres from Grassy Narrows to Toronto. This first Walk for Mother Earth became a catalyst for the Gathering of Mother Earth Protectors and Sovereignty Sleepover last May at Queens Park.
Their message was: respect the right of First Nations to say no to economic exploitation and environmental destruction, stop criminalizing land protectors!
The walk was organized by Chrissy Swain, who has been an integral leader in the Grassy Narrows resistance to logging on their territory, in the empowerment of youth, and the traditional resurgence of Anishnabe culture that is taking place in their community.
For more information about Grassy Narrows and their resistance to clearcut logging, click here.
For Chrissy, this tour is a spiritual journey inspired by dreams and recent incidents. Chrissy and Grassy Narrows organizer Judy Dasilva visited the site of the Macintosh Residential School near Kenora. There, behind the old school site, instead of a memorial, they found several large hydro towers right at the site of the graves of those children who died at the school, disrespecting their memory. Following the visit, Chrissy had dreams telling her that this was to be a symbol of the connection between the destruction of Indigenous lands, and the destruction of their communities.
The recent and ongoing standoff at Akwesasne is a spiritual sign to her that the time for the journey is imminent. The events of Friday June 12 (when the OPP brutally raided a solidarity blockade in Tyendinaga, and also escalated the police crackdown on protests by women from the Beausoleil First Nation who are camped at Dump Site 41) were a signal to Chrissy to forgo the walk across Northern Ontario so that she could be here now, talking to people in both settler and Indigenous communities, trying to build solidarity and support for communities engaged in land protection struggles, and to work towards healing.
The walkers are inviting other Indigenous activists and allies to meet them in Ottawa to tell the federal government that the time is now to protect the Earth, the time is now for healing and reconciliation—between settler and Indigenous communities, and between us and Mother Earth as well.
“The government does not understand that words are not good enough. Talking ‘green’ and making empty apologies that don’t actually deal with real issues is not good enough. We have to protect the land—protect our Mother Earth. I want to tell Harper that apologies are not good enough. Canada needs to give proper respect to the victims, families and survivors of the residential schools. We need Canada to recognize the damage those schools have done to our communities and cultures, and we need an end to the destruction of our lands, and an end to native people being criminalised when they stand up for their rights to protect their lands, their cultures, and their communities.”
-Chrissy Swain, June 2009
on October 3, the anniversary of the signing of Treaty #3.
