LWIC Fall Gathering

In mid-October, we met as a collective for our annual Lake Winnipeg Indigenous Fall Gathering. The Fall Gathering is a time for collective members to come together and discuss important and relevant topics going on, in and around Lake Winnipeg. We had a wonderful time where we were able to visit, catch up, share stories and make memories together as a collective. We met with longtime collective members, and new community members who we had the pleasure of meeting for the first time.

On our first of four days, Kianna and Quinton hosted our first Indigenous youth circle meeting. We had eight youths aged 15-24, who are both on-reserve and living in the city. We spent our time getting to know each other through group discussions, and a lovely walk on the Grey Buffalo Grandfather trail. This was a great way to get to know each other while also connecting with the land. We were also lucky enough to receive an interactive presentation from Ken Swampy of Sagkeeng First Nation, who brought his traveling shoreline museum to us. Towards the end of our day, we were able to chat more as a group about our connections to the land and water, and what we hope for the future of Lake Winnipeg. We were able to do this through a guided art activity, which really brought out some amazing ideas and creative abilities. We are so grateful to the youth who came and participated in our first meeting.

On our second day, we met as a larger group, with collective members from all over the Lake Winnipeg Watershed. Our discussions with the broader group started with the topic of the Lake Winnipeg Indigenous Accord. Over the last few months, we have been doing some work at LWIC to take a closer look at the accord to see what could possibly be updated, and what needs to remain as vital parts of our work collectively. This time we set aside was an opportunity to hear from our broader collective, and gain some perspectives on what direction we are going in. Our conversations were centered around women and Two-Spirit people as water protectors, and concepts of natural resource management and land sovereignty as Indigenous peoples. Through fruitful dialogue, we are affirmed that these conversations are integral and need to continue as we move forward.

We also had the chance to discuss the Lake Winnipeg Water Treaty, a joint effort between LWIC and Decolonizing Water. This was an opportunity for us to ask questions and vision together about what the Water Treaty could look like and how it can exist. We were gifted with a very large floor map of the Lake Winnipeg Watershed by our friend Aimee Craft at Decolonizing Water, and spent some time together as a group familiarizing ourselves with the vastness of this beautiful map. Thank you, Aimee! 

On our third day, we took some time with Kianna to discuss what’s been going on in the past year in regard to the Environmental Monitoring Network. We were able to hear about how shoreline erosion monitoring has been going in our partnered communities, and we all got to look through the updated version of the Shoreline Monitoring Protocol Field Book. As a part of this ongoing work with the monitoring network, we took some time to get out on the Brokenhead Interpretive Wetland Trail as a way to ground ourselves in the work we’ve been doing. 

In honouring all the energy and hard work that has gone into the monitoring network, we were finally able to sit in ceremony and be held by the sweat lodge near Grey Buffalo Grandfather Wellness Lodge. We are extremely humbled and grateful to our relatives Rob and Terrence who supported us in this ceremony, as we continue to pray for ourselves and the work we’re doing. Kinanaskomitinaw. 

On our final day of the gathering, we were joined by our relative Breanne Lavallee-Heckert, a Metis community organizer who possesses legal training and holds a Juris Doctor degree. She provided some of her wisdom and knowledge around legal frameworks from an Indigenous perspective, the Canadian constitution and the new Charter Challenge for legal personhood of Lake Winnipeg. We spent this time asking Breanne questions, having group discussions and strengthening our understanding around what could come of the pursuit for legal personhood for Lake Winnipeg.

After all of this, we were able to end our gathering in a good way on the shore of Lake Winnipeg. We want to sincerely thank everyone who attended our gathering, and all who supported us in making this gathering happen. We are truly grateful for our community of people who care about the water and land as much as we do. We’d also like to give a special thanks to the Grey Buffalo Grandfather Wellness Lodge for hosting us, and to Fay McCorrister who welcomed us so lovingly and made sure we were all well-fed.

Thanks everyone!