ABERFOYLE – A billboard on Gordon Street, near the site of the water bottling plant owned by Nestle´ Water Canada, includes a message from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council to stop the “removal of our waters.”
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council served Nestle´ with a ‘cease and desist’ order on June 5, 2019 which stated:
“Pursuant to the Haldimand Proclamation and the 1701 Nanfan Treaty, Nestle´ sits on Haudenosaunee territory upon which it is … removing aquifer waters from under our territory. We hold ancestral title to these lands, territories and waters.”
The new billboard also promotes the podcast “Ohneganos: Let’s Talk Water.”
The podcast is an interactive student-led YouTube series on water security and climate change.
Makasa Looking Horse, a McMaster University student, hosts the seven-episode series.
Makasa shares stories, art and film with guests and viewers in a conversational format.
Each week, Makasa speaks with inspirational Indigenous youth leaders from across the globe as well as community members from Six Nations, partner researchers, Indigenous artists and knowledge holders.
The speakers share traditional ecological knowledge, current events, Indigenous perspectives and details about ongoing research.
Makasa Looking Horse is a McMaster University Honours Indigenous Studies student, Ohneganos youth leader, speaker and advocate for water protection. She is Mohawk from Six Nations and Lakota, Cheyanne River Reservation, South Dakota.
Open-ended episodes
The episodes – open-ended and varying in length, – focus on issues affecting Indigenous people and highlight the experiences of Six Nations and other First Nations people, such as accessing water during a pandemic, systemic and environmental racism, water insecurity, and health vulnerabilities.
Seven-part series
The seven-part series can be found on the Ohneganos Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Ohneganos is a McMaster University and Six Nations Global Water Futures research project with a focus on Indigenous knowledge, training and capacity building, governance, water quality and monitoring.
