Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

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Hamilton fundraiser for Indigenous women’s charity created, in response to Freedom Convoy

Hamilton fundraiser for Indigenous women’s charity created, in response to Freedom Convoy

A director at a Hamilton non-profit started a fundraiser on Friday for a charity that supports Indigenous women and families, as a response to the Freedom Convoy that has heavy coverage over several news cycles. Robyn Knickle, the director of development at the Neighbour 2 Neighbour Centre in Hammilton, wrote in a social media post that seeing the tally for the trucker convoy climb past $6 million (much of which has originated from outside of Canada), caused her to wonder why there was no similar groundswell of support for Indigenous communities. Within six hours, the GoFundMe campaign she created to support the charitable foundation linked to the Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) had raised $700, toward a modest goal of $5,000.

Highway maintenance leads to water being drained from Fredericton wetlands

Highway maintenance leads to water being drained from Fredericton wetlands

A wetland in Fredericton was drained by workers with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure who were doing highway maintenance next to the nature preserve. The Nature Trust of New Brunswick said the workers destroyed a beaver dam in the Ferris Street Forest and Wetland Nature Preserve that was blocking a culvert on the Ring Road on the city's north side. As a result, more than half a metre of water was drained from the site, causing critical damage to the area and raising concerns about the impact to the species at risk and migratory birds that use the site for nesting.

Sweet water

Sweet water

‘Water sustains us, flows between us, within us, and replenishes us. Water is the giver of all life, and, without clean water, all life will perish.’—Assembly of First Nations “No human being, no animal or plant, can live without its water,” says Dawn Martin-Hill, co-founder of the Indigenous Studies program at Hamilton’s McMaster University. For centuries, the Unist’ot’en people have called Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia home. Their way of life is such that they can drink straight from the pristine Morice River (Wedzin Kwah) that flows through their land. Last year, construction began on the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, posing a direct threat to the Morice. “We call it sweet water,” said Martin-Hill. “We had that everywhere. We had it here in Ontario.” “You know it when you’re drinking it. I’d rather have sweet water over running water.”

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