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Hopes and fears – how climate change affects Indigenous communities

Shortened summer and warming lakes are just two of many warning signs

Sammie Hunter is used to the cold.

On a chilly sub-zero December night in Toronto, the Peawanuck, Ont., native had to remove some clothing layers because it’s “too warm.”

His hometown of Peawanuck, a remote Cree community of about 300 people in northern Ontario near Hudson Bay, is feeling the brunt of climate change.

“One month of winter is missing now in my lifetime,” Hunter lamented. “A long time ago we used to have seven months of winter and five months of summer.”

It’s split almost evenly between the two now, he said.

The 52-year-old remembers how the snow used to be harder, like “cement,” and how he could walk across the Winisk River by the first week of November. Those days are gone.

The warmer weather allows for animals like moose and pelican to make their way north; the former now roams the Hudson Bay Lowlands in great number, possibly rivalling Timmins as the moose capital of Canada. Melting permafrost contributed to the disappearing of many native plant and bird species, while a new crop of “strange” vegetation started appearing.

“Some things are happening up there, fast,” said the film production worker and polar bear tour organizer, who established the Peawanuck Climate Change community to raise more awareness about the issue.

The new normal

The Government of Canada’s website says the country’s average annual temperature has gone up by 1.6 Celsius degrees during the period 1948 to 2013, a rate of three times higher than the global average.

The website further states that the “dramatic reductions in Arctic sea ice cover” will result in extreme weather events, such as severe heat waves, floods, droughts, and forest fires.

Indigenous peoples, especially those who live along the coastal and northern regions, are considered to be the most vulnerable. The warmer weather will pose not only ecological, but also social, cultural and economic implications.

Empowering Indigenous communities

Canadian explorers Joanie and Gary McGuffin have travelled throughout Canada, North America and beyond for over 30 years. Among the journeys, the husband and wife team has hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, and completed a two-year canoe expedition across the country from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Arctic Ocean.

Joanie McGuffin shares Hunter’s concerns over the changing landscape, specifically around Lake Superior, a place that she first visited in 1983.

“The overall temperature of the lake has increased,” McGuffin said, which in turn promotes the growth of green algae.

“(Back then) the rocks along the North Shore were clean. Now I notice that when I get out of the canoe, the rocks are slippery with green algae,” she said.

The McGuffins during one of their outings in Lake Superior (Courtesy of Gary and Joanie McGuffin)

A study on the warming of more than 600 lake surface waters around the globe by a team of local and international researchers and published on the Geophysical Research Letters in 2015 found that Lake Superior had one of the fastest rates of warming on the planet.

“We look at Lake Superior as being invincible, the largest fresh water lake on earth, and you think that it’s never going away. Well, the impact of climate change is such that we can end up losing it,” McGuffin said, referring to water diversion schemes to feed the water-starved western USA.

The couple’s great love for nature led to the creation of the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy, an international charitable organization based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and Sault Ste Marie, MI., whose mission is to “protect, restore, and celebrate” the Lake Superior watershed.

The organization has been overseeing “a thousand of kilometres” of Trans Canada Trail’s Great Trail. The Lake Superior Water Trail has involved working closely with the North Shore communities such as the Indigenous community of Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, formerly Pic River First Nation – around the water.

Among essential amenities and infrastructure installed at 16 water trail access points, visitors will also find information kiosks that feature local photographs, maps, and stories unique to the area.

“You use the trails to tell your local stories, particularly Indigenous stories,” she said.

Believing in the value of eco and cultural tourism, the Lake Superior Water Trail co-ordinator said the trails encourage people in the communities to get involved and help drive the economy in a sustainable way instead of relying on a resource-intensive industry.

Listening to Mother Earth

Whabagoon is a Traditional Elder and Sacred Pipe Carrier. She believes the world could learn more from Indigenous culture and be more grateful for what nature provides.

The Lac Seul First Nation elder talks of the importance of the land and how Mother Earth nourishes and protects everyone.

“The land isn’t only important to us as a place to live. It’s a place to learn and grow. All the elements: the earth, light, air, and water – they’re all very sacred things,” she explained.

Whabagoon added that water is “something very, very special” to her heart.

Too many communities don’t have clean drinking water, she said. While she now lives in the city, she recalls how hard it was to access clean water on her Kejick Bay reserve where people were only given 15 liters of water every week.

The clean water problem is still ongoing.

“They have to measure out their water and ask: ‘What am I going to use this water for,’” she said. “On the other hand, in cities like Toronto, we don’t have to worry about water.”

She hopes people would have more respect for water by not taking more than they need.

“We must look after it… (otherwise) there’s not going to be anything left for the next generation,” Whabagoon said.

Looking ahead

Despite the telltale signs of climate change, people in Peawanuck can seem complacent.

“A lot of people kind of like climate change. Now they can grow stuff. If somebody tried to garden, (previously) there would be frost and everything would die,” Hunter said.

The next 10-20 years is what ultimately worries him.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen down south. I think there’s going to be more conflict in the future. We have a lot of water where we are, and a lot of people will fight for that in the future,” he said.

As for McGuffin, she finds the upsurge in climate change deniers troubling, especially those south of the border.

“There’s such a division. (Climate change) is something we’ve known about for a half a century or more. Why is it then the American people are divided? It’s because there’s a huge lobby to present it as fake news,” she said.

Still, the conservationist believes in starting conversation.

Dark as the world may appear at times, Elder Whabagoon says she’s hopeful for the future.

“My heart is full of hope,” she said.

“I believe our youth are going to amaze us. They’re going to take care Mother Earth, take care of our water, they will heal Mother Earth.”

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