Indigenous cultures are rooted in the land. We draw vitality and meaning from the land, and we are called on to conserve it. Indigenous people across the country are honouring that responsibility.
ILI’s long-time partner, The Pew Charitable Trusts, featured some of our advisors and colleagues in a series called People of the Boreal. Here are their stories:
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Katye Martens/The Pew Charitable Trusts
“This is my homeland. This is where my ancestors have always lived. Our whole living memory speaks about being in this area.”
Steven Nitah
First Nations Negotiator Honors Ancestors by Protecting Boreal Forest
Steven Nitah was raised by his grandparents alongside the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. They taught him how to move through the forest hunting and checking traplines. Today, he honours their teachings by protecting the land that has supported the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation for generations. Nitah is the chief negotiator for the Lutsel K’e in discussions on the new Thaidene Nene National Park Reserve, which will be co-managed by the community, and other major land use decisions.
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Katye Martens/The Pew Charitable Trusts
“Listening to the wind and to the river, it brings some calmness and serenity into your being. When I need healing, I go to the land.”
Sophia Rabliauskas
Inside One Couple’s Quest to Protect Canada’s Boreal Forest
Sophia Rabliauskas is a leader from the Poplar River First Nation on the eastern shores of Lake Winnipeg. Poplar River lies within the western edge of Pimachiowin Aki, a vast region of intact boreal forest known in Anishinaabe as the “land that gives life.” Rabliauskas has been at the forefront of an Indigenous-led campaign to conserve Pimachiowin Aki as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Already this effort has prompted UNESCO to stop separating cultural and natural values when assessing potential sites, since nature and culture are inextricably linked for Indigenous communities.
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Katye Martens/The Pew Charitable Trusts
“Keeping our cultural alive is all about being part of the land, being part of the wildlife, the fish and the birds.”
Stephen Kakfwi
Indigenous Leader Bridges Environmental Divides in ‘Spectacular’ Canadian Wilderness
Stephen Kakfwi is a former territorial premier, past president of the Dene Nation and senior advisor to the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. He spent his early childhood in the Dene village of Fort Good Hope along the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories and, after residential school, he returned to the village to learn the traditional ways of hunting and trapping. For decades, he has worked to conserve his community’s lands and he has fought for the rights of all Indigenous people to determine the fate of their lands.
