Indigenous knowledges are crucial to ensuring life will be sustained and continued. We must acknowledge the significance of Indigenous knowledge, voices, traditions, and sciences to environmental justice.
Justice for Indigenous peoples and environmental justice are interconnected and one cannot occur without the other. Through this series, we hope to highlight how environmental justice through localized and Indigenous knowledge systems is part of the larger process of decolonization.
Join us in this virtual series to hear from three amazing speakers as they share with us their experience and knowledge on the intersection and connection between Indigenous knowledges and environmental justice!
March 16th: Vanessa Gray
Vanessa Gray is a 29 year old queer Anishinaabe Kwe. She is a respected water protector, community researcher, and organizer in the Great Lakes region. She is known for her environmental justice work concerning pollution in Ontario’s Chemical Valley, which is on her territory and surrounds her community of Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Chemical Valley is the largest complex of petrochemical industry in Canada, and Aamjiwnaang community members’ constant exposure to harmful emissions results in some of the highest mortality rates for cancers and respiratory diseases in Ontario. Vanessa has dedicated her life to challenging colonial violence and the related impacts on environmental health.
March 23rd: Deyowidron’t Morrow
Teri (Deyowidron’t) Morrow, Wolf Clan from the Cayuga Nation. Teri is a registered dietitian working in her home community of Six Nations of the Grand River and is the chair of the Aboriginal Nutrition Network of Dietitians of Canada. One of less than 30 Indigenous Dietitians across Canada. Teri has been involved in health and social research development since 2010 with Western University, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and University of Ottawa. She specialises in Haudenosaunee foods and water protection.
March 30th: Dawn Martin
Dawn Martin (they/she) is a Two-Spirit gender fluid person and member of the Bear Clan, Kanyenkehaka (Ga-nyen-gay-ha-ka) Mohawk Nation at Six Nations Grand River Territory, and a citizen of the Rotinonhsyonni (Low-de-noh-shown-knee) Confederacy. Dawn studied at Trent University in Indigenous Studies and Queens University for Education. She is a teacher, a learner and speaker of the Mohawk language currently studying at Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa. She also works with revitalizing traditional planting methods of the Haudenosaunee being a Seed Keeper to many varieties of corn, beans and squash. Dawn also has a pet dog named Chewy.
Learn about land, water, and food from an Indigenous perspective and how this understanding can assist us in achieving environmental justice and justice for Indigenous peoples!