Indigenous youth activist advocating for clean water for all Canadians
The Friendly News is a collaboration between TELUS and Daily Hive. Together, we’re creating a space for important, feel-good community stories to be told, where Canadians can immerse themselves in uplifting news and articles featuring community leaders giving back during a time when we all need it most.
Written for Daily Hive by Caleigh Alleyne, a Toronto-based journalist and media consultant.
After its acclaimed debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2020, The Water Walker, which followers the Anishinaabe Indigenous rights advocate Autumn Peltier on a journey to speak in front of the United Nations, has been picked up by HBO Canada and will be available to stream on Crave in April.
At only 17, Peltier has over 100,000 Instagram followers and has spoken to prominent world leaders while advocating for safe and easy access to water as a fundamental human right.
As the Chief Water Commissioner for Anishinabek Nation in Ontario, Peltier has recently launched a petition through change.org that has amassed thousands of signatures demanding the right to clean water.
Even though Canada boasts having 20% of the world’s freshest water, 73% of First Nations water systems are at a medium to high risk of contamination. Peltier has seen firsthand how many First Nations communities across the country still do not have access to clean and safe drinking water and the effect that this has.
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The importance of honouring water
In many Indigenous communities, their understanding of water has a deeper meaning. For Peltier, what she has learnt from her Ojibway/Odawa heritage has been the foundation for her advocacy work.
“We come from water, we live in water for nine months before we enter the physical world, and so we are first taught how to love your water and how to love your mother,” explains Peltier. “We think of water as a living thing with a spirit, and so when I think about protecting the water, it’s almost as if I am protecting someone else who helps to sustain us.”
She was first introduced to this issue when she was a child by her late Great Aunt Josephine Mandamin, known as “Grandmother Water Walker,” who walked the shores of all five of the Great Lakes in Ontario (over an estimated 17,000 km) to raise awareness about Indigenous water rights in Canada and conservation. It is through Peltier that her work continues.
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Sharing her message with the world
Peltier followed in her great-aunt’s footsteps to share this message on the world’s stage. She made headlines in 2016 when she confronted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Assembly of First Nations about access to clean water.
“When I speak at large international platforms in front of important leaders, I feel like my message is getting to the people who need to hear it the most,” says Peltier. “That’s when I feel like I can make a change or that I have succeeded.”
She has continued her high-profile international speaking engagements appearing at the UN General Assembly launching the International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development in 2018 and at the UN Global Landscapes Forum in 2019. She was also nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize, also known as the Nobel Prize for Children, three years in a row in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
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For this teen, social media has been one of the most powerful tools in getting her message to her peers as many of the forums have shifted to virtual forums during the pandemic. “We’re all on our phones using social media, so it has been a way for me to get my messages across in an impactful way,” shared Peltier. “I’ve noticed that through my own work, more and more youth are standing up, raising their voice, and taking action.”
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“Our messages coming from young people are so much more powerful,” explains Peltier. “You know something is wrong when children have to be advocating for it, and that something needs to be done.”
The future is limitless for Peltier. In her last year of high school, she has applied to study political science and law with aspirations to work in politics — setting her sights on some of the highest positions of power to influence real change in Canada.
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