The People’s Water Campaign and Wellington Water Watchers
2020-11-03 16:00 - 18:00 UTC
Guest Speakers: Mike Balkwill, Campaign Director, Wellington Water Watchers.
This event is to be aligned with Bonnie McElhinny’s course “Living on the Water” (Tuesday’s 4-6 pm, New College University of Toronto).
Session Description:
Mike will offer a history of, and update on this campaign, including the recent decision of Nestle to withdraw, though now replaced by another water bottling company, and the People’s Water Campaign to restore environmental protections for water security and help build the movement for water justice in Ontario (https://wellingtonwaterwatchers.nationbuilder.com/pwc).
Wellington Water Watchers is a non-profit organization run by volunteer citizens from Guelph-Wellington who are committed to the protection of local water resources and to educating the public about threats to the watershed. Campaigns have included challenges to water mining in southern Ontario by Nestle.
Zoom link will be available on the day of the event. Contact: waterallies@utoronto.ca for inquiries.

Water, Treaty, Research: The Territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit
2020-11-17 16:00 - 18:00
Guest Speakers: Nancy Rowe (Elder of Mississauga, Ojibwe of the Anishinaabek Nation located at New Credit First Nation, ON)
This event is to be aligned with Bonnie’s course “Living on the Water” (Tuesday’s 4-6 pm, New College University of Toronto)
Event Description: Giidaakunadaad (The Spirit who lives in high places), Nancy Rowe is a Mississauga, Ojibwe of the Anishinaabek Nation located at New Credit First Nation, ON. She has been stood up by Chief and Council as an Elder/Knowledge Keeper and Representative for New Credit First Nation. For this event, she will present teachings on water, treaty, and traditional knowledge in the territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit.
She has been a practicing Traditional Knowledge Carrier for 20 years and works with numerous Elders to train in the Ceremonies. Nancy is an educator, consultant, and a Traditional Practitioner of Anishinaabek lifeways, views and customary practices, and holds an honours BA in Indigenous Studies and Political Science, and is currently completing a master’s degree in Environmental Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo, with the support of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council: Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (see below for publications). She also has received a number of other prestigious scholarships and fellowships. She founded and coordinates Akinoomaagaye Gaamik, a grassroots initiative to provide educational opportunities for all people interested in Indigenous perspectives on life, health, education, history, and the environment. She has authored or co-authored several publications, including Rowe 2012, and McCarthy, Millen, Boyden, Alexiuk, Whitelaw, Viswanathan, Larkman, Rowe., and Westley (2014) in Ecology and Society. She is founder/co-director of Akinomaagaye Gammik and has been coordinating projects since 2014. Envisioned in 2010, and built in 2013 under the direction of co-applicant Nancy Rowe, Akinomaagaye Gammik: House of Learning is a grassroots initiative that provides inside and outside space to facilitate, coordinate, partner, promote and fundraise for events and activities that provide local and regional ways of learning and engaging in land-based Indigenous ways of doing, being, and understanding customary practices and languages. The Lodge therefore regularly offers ceremonies and learning events by hosting Elders to share and teach the original thought and practices of Anishinaabek, Cree, and Onkwehonwe Peoples. Akinomaagaye Gammik has many partnerships that receive professional development including FNMIEAO.com, Ontario Human Rights Commission, Ontario Teachers Federation, Ministry of Education, numerous school boards, organizations, programs, and classes. (See the lodge web-site for a list of examples: akinomaagaye.weebly.com).

Please contact waterallies@utoronto.ca for Zoom link on the day of the event.
