Eighteen-year-old Canadian, Peltier is addressing a fundamental basic human right for clean drinking water.
Autumn Peltier comes from the Anishnabek Nation, a group of 39 First Nation communities across the province of Ontario, Canada, representing 65,000 people. It is not only a cultural union for the Anishinaabe, who are closely related and speak similar languages, but also a political one with roots dating all the way back to 796 A.D. It is here that a water crisis has been ongoing for decades, as the water supplied to many of these communities is contaminated, hard to access, or at risk due to faulty treatment systems. In stark contrast, access to clean, safe, and affordable drinking water is easy for most Canadians outside of Indigenous communities.
In Canada, drinking-water advisories alert communities that their water is not safe to drink. They’re highly concentrated in First Nations communities, many of them in Ontario, and persist for years or even decades. This leaves many Indigenous peoples without the fundamental human right of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation, despite living in one of the world’s most highly developed countries. Peltier’s Aunt Josephine was presented with a prophecy from an elder in 2000 that warned of water costing as much as gold by 2030. Concerned by the pollution happening to the lakes and rivers and alarmed by this prophecy, she embarked on a walk around Canada’s Great Lakes, carrying a copper bucket of water. As she walked with other women, they sang and prayed, bringing themselves into a stronger relationship with the water as well as strengthening the deep ties between their communities and the Great Lakes. These walks raised awareness around the importance of protecting water from pollution, and in her 77 years, Peltier’s Aunt Josephine walked roughly 25,000 miles for
her cause.
Cyrus Jarvis: You’ve been campaigning around this issue for many years now despite being only 17 years old—what’s the story behind your motivation to fight for clean water in Indigenous communities?
Autumn Peltier: I was already learning about my culture and its teachings from my Auntie Josephine and my mom, who are my main mentors. But I was also learning about the importance of water and the water crisis from Aunt Josephine, because she was not only an elder who taught these types of things to people, including myself, but she was also doing the work that I’m doing right now before I was. She introduced this work around water activism and the importance of water to me, and that’s kind of where my understanding of this whole entire issue began. What really pushed me to be like, “I need to speak up and say something about this” was when I was eight years old. Although that is pretty young, for me it was—I don’t know—different, I guess. I was attending a water ceremony in a First Nations community that wasn’t far from mine; it was about an hour and a half from my community, and I was going to use the washroom. Of course, I’m used to being able to use the washroom and wash my hands normally, but in this community all over the walls there were signs that said, “Not for consumption—do not drink the water—boil-water advisory—do not wash your hands with the water.” At the time, of course, I had no idea what this meant or why this was happening, so I asked my mom, “Why can’t I wash my hands here? Why can’t I use the water?” It was pretty shocking for me because it was like… don’t even touch the water—that’s how toxic the water in this community was.
“Why can’t I wash my hands here? Why can’t I use the water?”
After my mom explained to me what it all meant, what a boil-water advisory was, and why this was happening to this community… for some reason it hit me. I was looking around at this ceremony where there were people of all ages, and there were little kids running around—little babies and toddlers. I thought to myself, “Well, I’m a kid right now. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to not be able to drink my own water, or to simply just wash my hands.” These kids don’t even know what it’s like to have clean water running from their taps. They grew up having to depend on bottled water, having to boil their water before using it, or having to walk to a certain tap that’s two kilometers from their home. That’s kind of where my biggest push was to do this work.
CJ: And how long had your Aunt Josephine been doing this work before you?
AP: Prior to me, she was doing it for about 15 or more years… I’m not too sure about the exact time span, but it was long before I was even here, and she passed away within the last two years, so she was doing it for a pretty long time before me.
CJ: I know that you’ve also been the chief water commissioner for the Anishnabek Nation since 2019—was it your Aunt Josephine who was in that role before you? What does that role entail?
AP: [Nods.] The chief water commissioner basically has a seat at the table and makes decisions regarding the Great Lakes and water in First Nations communities. So I kind of have a say and I bring thoughts, questions, and concerns from Indigenous people in these communities, or people surrounding the Great Lakes, to that decision table on a political level.
CJ: Could you also explain what happens during a water ceremony?
AP: So for First Nations people in Canada, water is one of the main elements of our culture. We respect it and look at it as if it’s a person. We believe it’s the lifeblood of Mother Earth, and, obviously, water is the reason that we’re even here today—because we lived in our mother’s womb, in water, for nine months before we came here. We just believe, basically, that water sustains all life, and it’s one of the most important things because without water literally nothing would be here. And so a water ceremony is basically when we pray for the water.
CJ: When you turn on the tap in the community you mentioned earlier, for example, is it visibly dirty? What does it look like?
AP: I know for a fact that it’s not contaminated with toxic waste, or anything that’s discoloring the water. There used to be a uranium mine near that community and so the old mine had contaminated that community’s water; it was contaminated with chemicals. But I know in a lot of communities there is a lot of discoloration—like dark, dirty water—when you turn on their taps.
CJ: What’s the public reaction like in Canada, outside of the Indigenous communities, when people become
aware that certain regions don’t have access to clean water despite being part of a “first-world country”?
AP: There hasn’t been a large reaction, in my opinion, because not only is drinking water an issue with Indigenous people in Canada, but the issues tie to a much bigger picture than just drinking-water advisories. It’s racism against Indigenous people; it’s a lot of racism and racism-based issues. That’s one of the main reasons I chose to speak up not only about boil-water advisories but also about Indigenous issues in Canada in general, because they’re not talked about, they’re not in the media. These issues are swept under the carpet and ignored. It has a lot to do with racism, so in terms of what you just said about how we’re in a first-world country but these issues are not being dealt with or talked about—that’s actually one of the biggest issues in Canada.
“I chose to speak up not only about boil-water advisories but also about Indigenous issues in Canada in general”
CJ: And would you say there’s any hope you might have in politicians to do something about this?
AP: In terms of hope in the government, I wouldn’t necessarily say I have hope that a lot of change will be made any time soon. I’ve been doing this work since I was eight years old, and I’m now 17 years old—that’s a very long time that I’ve been doing this, and I’ve seen very minimal change. Like, a lot less change than I would’ve expected. My Auntie Josephine had been doing this for almost half of her life as well, so I wouldn’t want to be 70 years old by the time something is done, or 70 years old and still talking about the same issues. I don’t really have hope because they are Indigenous issues, and in general I have very little hope for those getting resolved. And considering Justin Trudeau had made a promise a few years back to resolve all First Nations boil-water advisories by March 2021… it’s obviously way past March 2021 and there are still over 100 boil-water advisories in Canada, so it’s just more broken promises to Indigenous people from the government, which goes way back in Canadian history. I really do not have hope, but I guess the more that I talk about it and the more people that I influence and mentor, [the government] can’t really ignore it forever, so something will eventually have to be done.
CJ: I also heard you went to Monaco to collect an award! Tell me about that.
AP: I did go to Monaco—that was obviously a very cool experience for me and probably one of my most favorite experiences. I received an environmental award from the Prince of Monaco along with a few other people, and I was basically being awarded for my exceptional advocacy and stuff like that, just being recognized for that. Things like that really do give me hope—knowing that my message is being heard internationally across the globe, because these issues, as I mentioned earlier, were not talked about at all. They’re still not really talked about in the media, but knowing that my message is really getting that far out there? And that people like the Prince of Monaco are aware of these things now? It gives me hope, and knowing that, and seeing that, and experiencing that—yeah, it was a really good experience.
CJ: You spoke earlier about racism toward Indigenous communities and how this water crisis is based off of that. Would you say you also feel racism personally in your day-to-day life?
AP: Yeah, definitely… because I do face it in my day-to-day life—in school, with friends… it’s just the way people talk and the stereotypes that people have normalized. It’s a huge thing not only for Indigenous people but for people of color in general in Canada. When I first moved from my community to Ottawa, which is where I live now, my friends at school asked me, “You’re native, you’re First Nations… so are your parents alcoholics? Are your parents drug addicts? Are you poor? Do you live in a teepee?” Those are the types of questions that I got. To think that racism still exists in our generation? It’s crazy.
CJ: So considering how you’re being internationally recognized for your work, how do people in school then react to that?
AP: It’s something I actually don’t talk about with friends or anyone at school, because it is something that I’ve had a really big issue about with bullying, and even when I use social media I always use aliases for all of my social media… so I kind of hide who I am with my friends and at school. With family, obviously everybody knows about [my work], but it’s something I just keep to myself because it resulted in pretty big issues that were really unexpected.
CJ: So you got bullied because of your work? Is it okay if I ask a little more about that?
AP: Yeah. I kind of got treated differently—as if to say, “Who do you think you are?” It was always people just thinking I was on a high horse or had a big ego… but it’s never that. I don’t even look at my work like that. It’s just people that kind of dislike the work that I do, and people creating negative rumors about me, and obviously that spreads around to everyone and their friends. There was even a point when people made fake accounts about me, trying to defame my character and slander me, and it got pretty bad to the point where I actually almost gave up doing the work that I do. I almost completely stopped, because that’s how bad it got. That was a pretty big eye-opener for me and a very big learning experience, actually… I’ve had to think to myself, if I actually quit, there’s so many young people who look up to me; some are even in kindergarten or grade one, like five-year-olds who look up to me. So what kind of mentor and what kind of person would I be if I let people get to me and give up? Although the experience I had was pretty bad, it made me who I am today and made me a lot stronger than I was.
“Although the experience I had was pretty bad, it made me who I am today and made me a lot stronger than I was.“
CJ: Does it ever get too much, to the point where you feel burned out?
AP: Yeah, I do—it gets pretty overwhelming sometimes, but recently it hasn’t really been too bad because it’s mostly been online, because of COVID, so it’s been pretty chill and mellow for a while now.
CJ: What’s next for Autumn Peltier?
AP: Well, I graduate high school this year; I’m going into post-secondary within the next year, and I’ve decided to go toward politics, law, and Indigenous studies, because that’s what I want to base my career around.
CJ: So where would you say you see yourself in 10 years or so?
AP: In Canada, we have an Indigenous leadership system, like a national chief, a provincial chief, a regional chief—it’s kind of like members of parliament and the prime minister, but just for Indigenous people. I want to base my career toward Indigenous politics and hopefully one day be a national chief or a regional chief of a province, so that’s kind of my goal—to work in Indigenous leadership.
CJ: Prime Minister of Canada, perhaps?
AP: Yes… It’s a very big goal, but definitely an aspiration!
Image courtesy of Stephanie Peltier. This story first appeared in our Sustainability issue.
