As noted on the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) Indigenous Nation website, “Through bold action campaigns KI and their supporters have stopped mining companies Platinex and God’s Lake Resources from exploring on their land. The community has also successfully pressured the Ontario government to withdraw approximately half of their watershed from all mining activity. But the fight isn’t over yet. Ontario has yet to recognize KI’s right to protect their entire watershed of 13,025 square kms and to control their Homeland. The rest of the community’s watershed remains open to speculation by gold, diamond, and metals miners seeking to capitalize on Ontario’s mining boom.
Indigenous communities like KI depend on the clean water and the fisheries that these rivers provide, and KI is determined to safeguard their water. …From August 24 to September 7 a team of paddlers from the KI Indigenous Nation will venture 300 km beyond the nearest road to paddle the ancient route from the KI village to the Arctic Ocean at Hudson’s Bay along the free-flowing Fawn and Severn Rivers. Along the way they will document and promote this wild watershed and the deep connection the community has to their life-giving river.” To follow their expedition, please go to http://kilands.org/waterexpedition/. For more on the situation faced by the KI, please see Ontario-Quebec organizer Mark Calzavara’s blog at http://canadians.org/blog/?p=13032.
