‘We never relinquished our water and lake bed rights’: Madahbee
UOI OFFICES (Nipissing First Nation) March 22, 2017 – On World Water Day, Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee says that First Nations have always had rights to the water.
“First Nations people are the inherent keepers and caretakers of our traditional territory; that includes water and land,” says Grand Chief Madahbee. “We have never relinquished or abandoned the responsibility of protecting and managing the lands and traditional territories. Our jurisdiction is embedded in various constitutions and traditional constitutions. We have treaties, wampums, binding us to this responsibility and honour to care for Mother Earth.”
In an Anishinabek News interview last fall with Grandmother Josephine Mandamin said: “We have to work together. We are of water, the water unites us and we have to be united in the work that we do in the future, not only for our future but for our [future] generations of children. Our children and their children also have to learn to work together.”
Mandamin has walked around the Great Lakes twice, and around other bodies of water all over Turtle Island to bring attention to the serious conditions of our lakes and rivers.
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For more information contact:
Laura Barrios, Assistant ROJ Communications Officer
Phone : 705-497-9127 ext. 2339
Email : laura.barrios@anishinabek.ca
