Webinar #4―Decolonizing the Industrial Approach to Mining Our Traditional Lands

Everyone is welcome to attend this webinar series!

Host: Beverly Andrews

Guests: Charmaine White Face or Zumila Wobaga - Charmaine (77) is Oglala Tituwan Oceti Sakowin (Oglala, Lakota dialect from the Great Sioux Nation). Ms. White Face is the Spokesperson for the 1894 Sioux Nation Treaty Council, which works to enforce the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty at the International level. In 1973, she graduated from Black Hills State University with a double major in Physical Science and Biology. She went on to the University of North Dakota, earning additional hours for minors in Chemistry and Microbiology. In 2002, she became the co-founder and coordinator for Defenders of the Black Hills. This non-profit environmental organization received many awards, including the International Nuclear Free Future Award for Resistance in 2007 in Salzburg, Austria. A writer, former teacher, organizer, scientist, and great-grandmother, she may be contacted at cwhiteface@gmail.com.

Lorraine Rekmans - Lorraine was born at Elliot Lake, Ontario, where her father worked as a uranium miner. She is of Algonquin-French descent and is a member of the Serpent River First Nation. Lorraine advocates for environmental and social justice issues through her work in media and non-governmental organizations.

Armed with a journalism background, Lorraine covered the first-ever environmental assessment on decommissioning the uranium mines at Elliot Lake. She is the co-editor of This Is My Homeland, a book that captures the experiences of Serpent River First Nation members and the impact of uranium mining at Elliot Lake on their lives.

Lorraine assisted in writing several international declarations, including the International Indigenous Peoples Declaration on Uranium (1992). Lorraine's leadership is a testament to her dedication. She served as the President of the Green Party of Canada, becoming the first Indigenous woman to hold such a position in the country. Her tenure was marked by her unwavering commitment to environmental and social justice within the Canadian political party.

Jacob Ostaman serves his community as the Lands and Environment Director of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI). KI, also known as Big Trout Lake First Nation, is one of five First Nations in Northwestern Ontario that have sent a resolute message to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization: “No” to nuclear waste in the region.

The mission of the KI’s Lands & Environment Unit is to preserve and protect the KI Homelands from environmentally destructive human activities that do not align with their ways of knowing, being, and living. Located 600 km north of Thunder Bay, KI is an Independent First Nations Alliance (IFNA) member along with Lac Seul, Whitesand, Pikangikum, and Muskrat Dam First Nations.

With this spirit and conviction, KI addresses land use and occupancy across its acknowledged traditional territory. In addition, KI declared that 13,025 sq. km of this territory, including the lakes, rivers, forest, wetlands, and Big Trout Lake, will be protected by the community from any development under the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug Water Declaration.

Protecting the watershed and associated wetlands, the Declaration de facto addresses one of the priority climate change adaptation areas for First Nations across Canada, specifically, deteriorating or changing water quality and quantity. Through this process, KI will not only inform future generations of the value of their homelands, but non‐Indigenous stakeholders as well.

No registration is required. We will broadcast live from this Facebook Event Page https://www.facebook.com/events/1461927638033173/ and on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@keepersofthewatersociety.