Crisis in Attawapiskat: Which One?

Attawapiskat’s declaration of a state of emergency over the quality of their water is just the latest example of the active genocide being swept under the rug by the Canadian government. Attawapiskat is drowning (not literally as they cannot even bathe in their water) in crisis over housing, teen suicide, access to clean drinking water and the Canadian government ceases to take any action. After the first nation's declaration of a water crisis this summer, many articles were written on the state of emergency detailing the increasing of trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids making their water undrinkable (Barrera, CBC 2019). A few articles were published surrounding Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O'Regan's promise to find alternative sources of clean drinking water and his proposed $1.5 million plan to flush out the water systems (Thurton CBC 2019). Since these articles have been published in the summer this issue has ceased to have any presence in Canadian media and it is unclear whether the Indigenous Services Minister’s proposed plans have been put into motion.

One of the CBC posts detailed a tweet by Environment Minister Catherine Mckenna that championing the clean drinking water in Ottawa. Adrian Sutherland, an Attawapiskat local, tweeted back “must be nice to have clean drinking water - thousands of indigenous people don’t even have clean water to bathe in never-mind drink. I don’t think (this) is something to be proud of!” (Barrera, CBC 2019). In Mckenna’s tweet, she hash-tagged 10000 changes, an organization that’s aim is to reduce the plastic footprint in Canada. Trying to eliminate plastic waste in Canada without first ensuring that all communities have access to drinking water will never solve the larger issue at hand. Instead, it seeks to exclude indigenous communities from this movement because they have no choice but to resort to plastic jugs and water bottles. This tweet is just another example of how indigenous issues are glossed over in pursuit of an idealized, unified Canada. Similarly to Trudeau’s proposed 1969 White Paper policy that intended to do away with the legal ‘Indian’ status (Frideres, 15), the tweet more subtly laughs in the face of the active discrimination indigenous communities experience. The tweet fails to acknowledge years of abuse and neglect towards the indigenous community by the Canadian government and the price First Nations people have paid for this environmental injustice.

In Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O’Regans visit to northern Ontario, he promised his commitment to a water treatment plant (Thurton, CBC 2019). However, he has only proposed short term measures and has yet to speak on any permanent solutions. Since then, no articles have been published concerning the progress of these efforts, or if the funding has even gone through. This issue is far from being resolved, but somehow the mere gesture of O’Regan throwing around words like ‘promise’ and ‘proposed 1.5 million’ magically makes their problems go away (at least in the eye of the public). It is significant to look back to James Frideres’ article Knowing Your History and think about who writes history and how that affects the narrative we are told. In the article, he poses an important question: “how accurate could your history be without your being ‘in their skin’, without being one of them and having the lived experience and knowledge of generations that comes with being part of a historical-cultural group?” (Frideres 2). The articles written on Attawapiskat’s water crisis look at only one small piece of a much larger puzzle. This water crisis has been going on for years and continues to persist but the narrative that is portrayed by CBC is that Seamus O’Regan solved their problems so readers can all rest easy tonight. These articles attempt to address the issues at hand but fail to understand the cyclical and purposeful nature of indigenous communities living conditions as a way of upholding Canada’s idealized unified image.

Altogether, the water crisis points to an overwhelming amount of neglect and mistreatment of the indigenous community in Canada that is ongoing. The response in media reinforces the creation of a narrative that does not align with indigenous communities' lived experiences. As Attawapiskat Chief Ignace Gull said to CBC “there needs to be more than just words, the funding has to be put in place to get things moving” (Thurton CBC 2019). This issue is not over, and there are hundreds of indigenous communities in eerily similar situations. Empty promises cannot be the end of the line for journalistic efforts because without them as a watchdog these promises will never be fulfilled.

Bibliography

Barrera, Jorge. “Attawapiskat Declares State of Emergency over Water Quality | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 9 July 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/attawapiskat-water-quality-emergency-1.5204652.

Frideres, James. “Knowing Your History,” First Nations in the Twenty-First Century. Detselig Enterprises, 2005.

Thurton, David. “Indigenous Services Minister Vows to Replace Attawapiskat's Water Treatment Plant | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 23 July 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/oregan-attawapiskat-water-treatment-indigenous-1.5222111.