​December We Matter Newsletter

​While Nestlé extracts millions of litres from their land, residents have no drinking water

November 25, 2018 - The Guardian
 Iokarenhtha Thomas, a mother of five. ‘That’s just the reality of living on reserve,’ she said of the lack of water. ‘You grow up being treated unfairly.’ Photograph: Jennifer Roberts for the Guardian

Just 90 minutes from Toronto, residents of a First Nations community try to improve the water situation as the beverage company extracts from their land
The mysterious rash on the arm of six-year-old Theron wouldn’t heal. For almost a year, his mother, Iokarenhtha Thomas, who lives in the Six Nations of the Grand River indigenous reserve in Ontario, went to the local doctor for lotions for the boy. It worked, for a time. But the itchy red rash always returned. Thomas came to suspect the culprit behind the rash: water – or, rather, the lack of it...    ....Thomas, a university student and mother of five, has lived without running tap water since the age of 16. Her children lack access to things commonplace elsewhere, like toilets, showers and baths. For washing and toilet usage, they use a bucket....
....This legal ambiguity has allowed Nestlé to move in and extract precious water on expired permits for next to nothing. Nestlé pays the province of Ontario $503.71 (US$390.38) per million litres. But they pay the Six Nations nothing....
....Martin-Hill believes that the exorbitant suicide rate among First Nations youth – five to seven times that of other Canadians, according to the federal government – is directly related to the lack of drinkable water. For a Six Nations person, water is sacred and a symbol of life. But the lack also has metaphorical significance, as it becomes representative of the myriad ways that indigenous Canadians are treated as second-class citizens....“There’s a strong element of depression, sadness and hopelessness because it’s been going on for so long. Young people don’t see a future.”   READ THE FULL STORY     
This is a story of poverty in our own country and we are oblivious to it. As the article states, the Trudeau government promised a fix but little has been done. - FVC
Consider boycotting Nestles - Here is a list of their brands

​Suicide shouldn't be 'normal' in Indigenous communities, says Massey lecturer Tanya Talaga

November 12, 2018 - CBC - The Current
Photo - The Star
For the 2018 Massey Lectures, Indigenous journalist Tanya Talaga examined the devastating problem of youth suicide in Indigenous communities. She spoke to Anna Maria Tremonti about what she found. Talaga quotes, "Canada is the only G8 country that does not have a national suicide prevention strategy." We need to speak up for the our Indigenous people.

It's ok to reach out 

November 1, 2018 - We Matter
See the 2017 Impact Report

​Take the #HopePact 

October 2, 2018 - We Matter
Indigenous youth across the nation are choosing to take the We Matter #HopePact, that serves as a reminder that you are never alone in what you are feeling or experiencing.
All of us have experiences that, at times, made life feel hopeless. Together, by sharing our stories, we can support Indigenous youth who may be struggling. If you have teachings, inspiration, quotes or a story that helps you get through hard times, we want YOU to submit your story. Read more at......
​     October We Matter Newsletter
“Jordan’s message reminds us that not everyone can recognize we’re struggling that it’s important for us to open up and share our stories and be receptive to hearing others so we can share tools to help one another cope.”
-Frances Moore, We Matter Operations & National Outreach Manager

We Matter - Ontario Support Network

September 23, 2018
We Matter is now accepting applications for its brand-new, multi-year regional project called the

Ontario Support Network!
​
The Ontario Support Network (OSN) is an exciting new project that hopes to build deeper partnerships between We Matter and a select number of Northern Ontario communities and deeper relationships between youth and their supports across communities. We Matter is looking for 6 community partners across Northern Ontario who are interested in bringing discussions of mental health and life promotion, and hope, culture, and strength into their schools and communities.

​30 Traditional Crops to Celebrate Indigenous Farming

August 8. 2018 - Foodtank
Food Tank is highlighting 30 historically and agriculturally significant fruits, vegetables, and grains from regions across the globe.
This International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, August 9, is an opportunity to celebrate the ecological and cultural value of indigenous foodways. In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly declared the day to encourage the world to protect and promote the rights of indigenous peoples. Celebrating their cultures means preserving their time-tested farming practices, agricultural knowledge, and traditional crops that can help address global climate change and food insecurity.
Of the roughly 250,000 plant species known to humankind, an estimated 30,000 are edible and approximately 7,000 have at some point been used as food. However, more than 90 percent of crop varieties have disappeared from farmers’ fields during the past 100 years; the varieties left that build our food system are predicted to suffer under climate change. The biodiversity maintained on indigenous peoples’ farms may be the key to building resilient food systems that can withstand changing weather patterns, meet nutritional and cultural needs of communities, and rehabilitate degraded ecosystems.   LEARN MORE...

We Matter Video - Australia

August 1, 2018

​In July, We Matter launched their #WeMatterAustralia videos. Young people across the globe are doing inspiring things and we all matter! 
​
Check out this message from one Koorie youth:

​Cutting Greyhound service in Western Canada puts Indigenous women at risk

July 18, 2018 - Globe and Mail
Emily Riddle is a graduate student and policy analyst. She is Nehiyaw (Plains Cree) and a member of the Alexander First Nation.
When I saw the news that Greyhound had decided to cut its bus services in Canada west of Sudbury, I was shocked and disappointed, not just because I’m another millennial without a driver’s licence, who has often utilized Greyhound buses – but because I am a Cree woman who knows that this loss of a vital service puts the safety of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people at risk. We deserve to travel our homelands free from violence, and while transportation is only a small component of the changes needed for that to happen, it is an important one.
We have long known that lack of access to transportation in rural and remote areas in this country is a factor in the murder and disappearance of thousands of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people in Canada.  
               ......READ MORE

We Matter Went International

July 1, 2018
This past month, We Matter Co-Founder, Tunchai Redvers, brought We Matter messages of hope, culture and strength abroad to Australia! 200 Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander young people from across the state of Victoria (Kulin Nation) gathered in Melbourne for the Koorie Youth Summit. The Koorie Youth Summit is an annual gathering hosted by the Koorie Youth Council, an organization dedicated to advocating for Aboriginal and Torres Straight youth.
​
           Check out this awesome video from the 2018 Koorie Youth Summit:    VIDEO

Indigenous youth everywhere matter and are doing amazing things in their communities  -so keep an eye out for some of We Matter’s first international video messages!

We Matter team member, Linnea Dick, was also featured on CBC Radio: Out in the Open, talking about Indigenous youth experiences with mental health. 

Listen to her inspiring interview

​We Matter: bringing hope to Indigenous youth - CBC Tapestry

March 15, 2018 - CBC Radio Tapestry
Picture
Kelvin (left) and Tunchai (right) are travelling across Canada with the We Matter campaign bringing their message of hope and truth to Indigenous youth.
Lack of clean water. Lack of housing. Lack of educational and job opportunities. Families facing addiction and abuse. These are just of the many struggles facing Canada's Indigenous peoples. Perhaps the most troubling news of all involves the heartbreaking toll of suicide; stories of young people whose circumstances have challenged their will to live.
Kelvin and Tunchai Redvers are a brother and sister team who are doing something about this. They created the We Matter campaign to help sow seeds of hope and connection among Indigenous youth.

Hear the podcast and learn how the We Matter campaign is making a difference and sowing hope for kids who feel they have no hope. 
"No matter what you're going through...there's always a way forward. It's hard to see that sometimes, but there are others who have been through what you've been through, and there are always people who want to support you. And WE want to support you."
Kelvin Redvers, co-founder, We Matter campaign

​Development and Peace - Caritas Canada signs on to the Leap Manifesto, a call for Canada based on caring for the earth and one another

Development and Peace - Caritas Canada is proud to announce its endorsement of the Leap Manifesto, which is a hopeful call for transformation of the Canadian economic model, from an unequal economy based on resource extraction and fossil fuels towards one that is based on energy efficiency, renewable energy, and economic and social justice. In signing the Manifesto, Development and Peace joins Canada’s social, faith, and labour movements for Indigenous rights, social and food justice, and environmental justice in making a bold leap towards a vision of our country which allows for all of us to live sustainably in dignity.
The Leap Manifesto was launched in 2015, the same year as Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si, as the world was preparing for the Paris Climate Conference, COP21. .....LEARN MORE

We Matter: 
 - Message of the week

Caroline Nochasak
“Caroline is one of the amazing youth a part of #HopeForum 2018. We’re honored she shared her voice – and she’s worth listening to!”
-Kelvin Redvers, We Matter Co-Founder
Share this with someone who matters!
Check out the website  - We Matter -  Share this with someone who matters to you!
January 22, 2018

​Tiny House Warriors build homes to protest pipeline plans

Listen to CBC Podcast
They call themselves the Tiny House Warriors, and they are using tiny houses to stand up against the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline.
The build site is in the heart of the Secwepemc territory in British Columbia, 50 kilometers east of Kamloops, in Mayuk Manuel's backyard. She and her twin sister Kanahus Manuel started the Tiny House Warriors. Read More

Indigenous lands and protecting our earth

October 30, 2017 - GCCM
Indigenous people live in over 93% of supposedly “uninhabited land. When indigenous people control their own land, all life benefits from clean air, water, and protection.
​
The result has become something of an ecological and financial disaster. Learn more, share and act.
October 10, 2017

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls


​“The complex interplay of factors – many of which are part of the legacy of residential schools – needs to be examined, as does the lack of success of police forces in solving these crimes against Aboriginal women”
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Final Report, December 2015
 
The MMIWG Information Hub on the KAIROS website is focused on providing information, resources and updates related to the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada. The hope is to create a hub, where allies can come together here: kairoscanada.org
October 4, 2017 - Change.org

First Nations Children NOW

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(A) group of concerned citizens (are) urging Prime Minister Trudeau and the Canadian government to support culturally based equity for First Nations children.
Background
In a landmark ruling released on January 26, 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found that the Canadian government is racially discriminating against 163,000 First Nations children and their families by providing flawed and inequitable child welfare services ("FNCFS Program") and failing to implement Jordan's Principle to ensure equitable access to government services available to other children....First Nations children are uniquely impacted by federal underfunding of services on-reserve. It is unacceptable that the federal government does not provide First Nations children, youth and families with equitable education, health care, child welfare and basics like clean drinking water.  Read More
Again election promises are being ignored. "The numerous initiatives that have been taken at the federal and provincial-territorial levels to address the problems faced by indigenous peoples have been insufficient," UN official, Anaya, said in his report. See the CBC Story.
​Little has changed.
August 21,2017

I Matter. You Matter. We Matter.

We Matter is a national multi-media campaign designed to gather positive messages from people across the country, to offer support for Indigenous youth going through a hard time.
​Suicide rates for Indigenous youth are several times higher that of other Canadians, as well as instances of addiction, abuse, violence, and many other issues. We believe this doesn’t need to be the case.
Go to website - We Matter
March 08, 2017,  The David Suzuki Foundation

Hold the federal government accountable to its promise

Last month, the David Suzuki Foundation and a coalition of partners went to Ottawa to report on the federal government's progress toward ending drinking water advisories in First Nations.
Our research shows the government is not on track to fulfil its commitment. This research is reinforced by a thorough Globe and Mail review that “shows water treatment plants are failing on reserves across Canada.”
Clean water is a human right. Yet more than 100 First Nations across Canada face drinking water advisories, meaning the water coming out of their taps may be unsafe for drinking or even bathing. Many communities have faced these conditions for years, or even decades. ​
We can show the federal government that the issue of unsafe drinking water in First Nations isn’t just an Indigenous issue — it’s everyone’s issue.
P.S. Did you know Canada has committed to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and endorsed the UN-recognized human right to safe drinking water and sanitation? Let's ensure our government fulfils those rights here at home.  READ MORE AND TAKE ACTION!!

​Why are Indigenous Peoples more likely to be poor?

Indigenous Peoples face poverty rates that are on average twice as high as for the rest of Latin Americans. This fact is probably not a surprise to most readers of this blog. More intriguing, however, are three additional findings from recent work on the topic.   Read more.....

Human Trafficking in our North?

See the Concerns - Modern Slavery page for the CBC Current report.

Oil Sands and the AFCN Challenge, Canada

This video is a well-articulated account of the value of their beloved lands and the ACFN's struggle with the rapidly expanding tar sands. The visuals show the stark contrasts of the natural beauty of the various habitats and the visual and sensory pollution of the tar sands. Knowledge holders see that the link between destruction, distortion and disease appears to be the water - lost and polluted. Apparently, Shell is not living up to their 2003 and 2006 agreements. Since it's time for renewals and Shell have also filed two new projects: the "Jackpine Mine" and the "Pierre River Mine", an open-pit mine, 27 miles from their lands, violating their Treaty, ACFN says "enough is enough. It's time to draw a line in the sand" - the way and the pace approvals are given must be changed.
During the official press conference for the "Honour of Treaties" benefit tour on the 13 January 2014, in Toronto, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (AFCN), accompanied by Neil Young, announced a new legal filing challenging the recent "Jackpine" Mine approval. Woodward and Company filed an application of behalf of the AFCN on January 3, 2014 asking the Federal Court to review the Crown’s decision to approve the Joint Review Panel report and decision to authorize Shell’s Jackpine Mine Expansion project proposal, and declare the decision invalid and unlawful. Read a summary of the filing.
If we don't put our foot down somewhere, it will never stop!
Eriel Deranger, Communications Coordinator, ACFN.

Truth & Reconciliation Commission, Canada

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is a component of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Its mandate is to inform all Canadians about what happened in Indian Residential Schools (IRS).

The TRC has a five-year mandate and will document the truth of survivors, families, communities and anyone personally affected by the IRS experience.

Witness Blanket

Carey Newman, on a personal and community mission for truth and reconciliation, is gathering artifacts to create a Witness Blanket. Hear a very moving interview with the artist on CBC involving a shoe.

The Pachamama Story - An Indigenous People
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