[Indigsol] Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug Water Declaration

[ipsm ottawa]

*Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug Water Declaration
*

*PHILOSOPHY AND SPIRITUALITY
*
Our elders teach us that…

The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug were put here by Keeshaymanitou (the
Creator) who gave us the four sacred elements of fire, earth, air and water,
along with the right to use them and the responsibility to care for them
always in order to maintain the sacred balance of life. This right and
responsibility has its spiritual foundation from the beginning of time, it
continues now, and will exist in what is yet to come.

Water is the source of life - a sacred gift given by the Creator to heal and
sustain all living beings.

Water is alive, and is life itself. All life on this earth depends on
healthy water for survival. Water is a relation, we depend on it and it
connects us to all other living things in the sacred web of life which we are
a part of.

All life is within a circle, including people. Because we are within the
same circle, we must be careful in reaching decisions that affect the
circle. Our decision will travel around the circle and impact on the future
generations to come. We have a responsibility to ensure that the future
generations can look back at us and say that our decisions today have not
caused harm to them in the future.

We have a deep spiritual dimension to our connection with the lake and our
territory. We have our own spiritual ceremonies and our own ways of
spiritual understanding that have developed over thousands of years of lived
relationship to the sacred landscape of our homeland. Our people understand
that all entities like plants, rivers, lakes, and animals embody spiritual
relationships that must be maintained and honoured.

The Big Trout Lake, our home lake, is a living system that reaches far
beyond its shores. It interacts with the rivers and streams that feed and
drain it, the lands whose waters flow into those rivers, the wetlands and
muskeg which breathe, the rains, the winds, the underground seams and spring
sources, the ice, snow, and frost. It provides clean drinking water for all
life, habitat for the fish and water life, food and travel ways for our
people, and moisture for the air.

KI people live and relate to our place on our territory and around the lake
at the deepest levels possible - a testament of ecological compact. Our
lives are oriented around the six seasons of KI: Gasiigwak – Spring,
Gamiinokamiik – Mid-Spring, Ganiibik – Summer, Gatagwaakik – Fall,
Gabiichibiibok – Late Fall, Gabiibok – Winter.

No outside law can remove us due to our deep connection and intimacy to our
lake and territory, a connection that has evolved over thousands of years as
evidenced in KI's recent finding of ancestral remains that are over 5,000
years old.

Through our ecological compact we have accumulated intimate Indigenous
ecological knowledge and laws that are very deep; they are within us, we
live them. This knowledge is profound, yet it is delicate and hard to grasp
because is not written, and it is unseen; it is within our hearts and within
our minds. It can never be fully documented, and can never be bounded.

Our territory is the best and rightful place for our people. The
Kitcheunuhmaykoosib Inninuwug have ancient place names for every spring,
cove, point, bend, pool, and rapid on every stream, river, lake and wetland
in our territory. We have lived here, used and cared for these lands and
waters ever since the beginning of time. We sustain ourselves physically,
mentally, emotionally, and spiritually through our relationship and
responsibility to each other and to the natural world that we are a part of.
We continue to live, to use and protect our territory according to our own
laws, ceremonies, and protocols, based on the teachings of the elders handed
down through the generations from the Creator.

Arising from this we have inherent, fundamental, and inalienable rights as
Indigenous peoples to our lands and waters. These include, but are not
limited to, those rights recognized in the Convention on Biodiversity, the
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, CERD General
Recommendation 23, The UN Human Right to Water and Sanitation resolution,
Treaty #9, the Constitution of Canada, and Supreme Court of Canada rulings.

This declaration is a physical reflection that flows from our inherent
spiritual bond with our homeland.

We will continue to live and assert out inherent rights and responsibilities
on our territory.


*DECLARATION *

We announce and proclaim our role as the First peoples of this territory –
the original caretakers - with rights and responsibilities to defend and
ensure the protection, availability and purity of the water for the survival
of the present and future generations, and for all life.

By the authority and responsibility given to us by the Creator we are going
to make decisions related to the waters.

*We declare all waters that flow into and out of Big Trout Lake, and all
lands whose waters flow into those lakes, rivers, and wetlands, to be
completely protected through our continued care under KI’s authority, laws
and protocols. *

We look at protection as restoring our land and waters to their original
condition and preserving them in that condition for future generations.

No industrial uses, or other uses which disrupt, poison, or otherwise harm
our relationship to these lands and waters will be permitted. This includes
no mining, no mining exploration, no commercial logging, no spraying or
dumping of chemicals, no damming, no diversion, no selling of water,
no transmission
or hydro electric generation projects (using the river to make electricity),
no commercial biomass energy (using wood or peat to generate electricity for
sale), no biopiracy (outsiders selling our plants, animals, their DNA, and
our ecological knowledge without permission), and no new roads or rail.

Essential Roads and electrical transmission for community use will be
permitted only if the Lands and Resources office approves that they are
routed so that they are outside the watershed as much as possible, follow
existing road corridors where possible, and take any other appropriate steps
available to minimize their impact.

Our traditional and contemporary use and occupancy of the lands and waters
will continue, subject to regulation by KI law, and protocols. This includes
fishing, hunting, trapping, gathering of food, medicine, and materials,
travel, cabin building, occupancy, and recreation by our people.

All respectful people are welcome to visit this area to engage in fishing,
hunting, camping, paddling, and recreation, so long as they first obtain a
permit of permission from KI, and respect regulation by KI law and
protocols.

Beyond the Big Trout Lake watershed, all lands and waters within KI
territory continue to be subject to a moratorium on all industrial uses.
This moratorium will remain in place unless it is lifted by a
community referendum
and Band Council Resolution, and at a minimum until KI has completed
contaminants research, source identification, cleanup, restitution, and
community healing, full landuse and occupancy research, traditional
ecological knowledge collection, indigenous side research, land use planning
and
designation, internal community vision processes, codification and
implementation of KI laws, protocols, and regulations. At all times the use
of KI lands and waters, and any decisions relating to them, will be subject
to a requirement for free, prior, and informed consent from our community
following our own laws and processes.

The continued protection of the watershed by the community will enable us to
maintain, restore, and rebuild our relationship to the land and water within
our homeland which in turn will facilitate the healing of the cultural and
spiritual impacts that occurred as a result of colonization within our
homeland.



*ENFORCEMENT
*
KI will implement and enforce this declaration under our own authority and
responsibility given to us by the Creator, and consistent with our duty to
care for the water as the sacred source of all life. Decisions will be made
by KI Chief and Council under the direction of our elders and in
consultation with our community. These decisions will be implemented by the
KI Lands and Environment Unit and by the community as a whole.

We call on the governments of Ontario and Canada to fully recognize and
respect this declaration. In particular we call on the governments and
corporations to immediately:

-recognize and respect KI protection of the Big Trout Lake and Fawn River
watersheds and commit not to grant any industrial use permits in the
watersheds;

-recognize and respect KI’s moratorium on industrial uses of our entire
territory;

-withdraw all KI territory, starting with the watersheds covered in this
declaration, from mineral exploration and staking until instructed to do
otherwise. Annul any existing mining claims on KI territory;

-require KI’s free, prior, and informed consent before any landuse or water
use decision, permits, and activities, including mining exploration at the
earliest stages anywhere on our homeland;

-fund KI contaminants research, source identification, cleanup, restitution,
and community healing;

-fund KI’s full landuse and occupancy research, traditional ecological
knowledge collection, indigenous side research, internal community
processes, codification of KI laws, protocols, and regulations, land
use planning
and designation ;

-respect KI protocols on ownership and control of information related to KI
territory and knowledge;

-respect and do not interfere with KI traditional and contemporary landuses
and occupancy including fishing, hunting, trapping, gathering of food,
medicine, and materials, travel and occupancy;

-fund KI monitoring and enforcement team to implement KI laws, protocols,
and regulations on KI lands. This should replace MNR monitoring and
enforcement and should be at a level of funding greater than or equal to
that devoted to the MNR.

-fund KI’s initiatives in sustainable and culturally appropriate economic
development.

-make all existing data on KI lands, geography, ecology, wildlife,
hydrology, geology, meteorology, and other western scientific information on
KI territory freely and easily available to KI. Require KI consent before
sharing this information with any other entity, or collecting new
information. Follow KI rules for the gathering, use, and sharing of KI
traditional ecological knowledge, and other knowledge on KI territory.

-commit to never again criminalize, sue, arrest, or detain KI people for
acting in defence of our lands, water, environment, and rights.

This declaration arises from our deep spiritual relationship with our
watershed and it will live forever. It may only be amended by a Band Council
Resolution respecting the result of a proper community referendum. The
referendum must follow a proper information and participation process,
respect the wisdom and guidance of the elders, have a participation rate,
and level of support that is equal to or greater than the referendum that
approved this Declaration.


We acknowledge that there are areas within our territory where we share
landuse with our neighbouring Indigenous communities. We will continue to
respect this ongoing shared traditional use and occupancy with our relations
according to our systems of kinship that are in place and at work. It is the
externally imposed systems and pressures that cause disunity.

We call on our neighbours to endorse and respect this declaration, and we
invite you to meet with us to discuss ways that we can work together to
honour our duty to protect the water in this area in the face of external
threats from the government and corporations.

We call on our supporters to recognize and respect this declaration. We call
on you to fulfill your duty as treaty people to take action, under our
direction, to hold your governments accountable to respecting this
declaration. Please stand with us as we assert and implement our Indigenous
laws and responsibilities. Together we can protect the sacred water for all
people, all animals, all plants, and all life.

Any government or corporation who seeks to violate this declaration will
have to face the people of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug and our supporters.


End of the forwarding message.

-- 

In Solidarity,
IPSMO
on unceded Algonquin Territory

--

Web Site: http://www.ipsmo.org
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/ipsmo
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