Indigenous Water Governance in the Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin

Keepers of the Water was born into existence as an urgent need for Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) holders to be heard, understood, respected and embraced as a critical solution to overcome the dirty water crisis and to lead the way to a just transition to clean and sustainable energy. Western science is and will remain incomplete without the inclusion and centring of Indigenous Sciences in ongoing environmental data collection and studies.

Before colonization, Indigenous Peoples lived balanced lives with the lands and waters of their territories. The colonization of our traditional territories has led to a steady decline in the quantity and quality of water everywhere. Accessibility to clean water continues to have drastically negative impacts on Indigenous Peoples and everyone living nearby or downstream from the toxic tar sands and equally toxic tailings “ponds.”

Keepers of the Water (KOW) looks to Indigenous communities in our work to instill Indigenous water governance and management with policy, legislation, natural law, and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). This provides the solutions to ensuring water is kept safe now and for future generations.

The former Chair of Keepers of the Water, Sam Gargan, stated, “As one who comes from this land, we have a collective right to use the land through Bush philosophy rooted in the culture—the importance of using land-based philosophy and passing laws down from the Elders. In Fort Providence, we have eight tribal groups. You are there on the land to survive and be responsible for making sure everything is there to survive. Pass on the knowledge that is not being taught in schools.”

We want to explore further “first in time, first in right” water governance and Treaty rights to water.

Keepers of the Water aims to actively work with Indigenous Nations, organizations, universities and other partners who want to help ensure that Indigenous water governance becomes lifted up to be a recognized, viable and needed option to address water management nationwide.

While much of our focus has been on the Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin, we know that all water is connected.

The Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin (AODB)

The Arctic Drainage Basin spans the territories of many Indigenous Peoples and is vital to Indigenous Peoples’ inherent rights and abilities to hunt, fish, trap, and gather medicines. Because of the size of the basin and its resources, colonial governments (both provincial and federal) have taken over and identified themselves as the owners of the river. It is through our traditional knowledge and oral history that we know that you cannot own the Water.

Keepers of the Water aims to protect the Arctic Drainage Basin, which covers parts of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut and connects to many rivers, including the Peace, Slave, and Athabasca rivers. We have a responsibility to care for Water and protect it, which colonial governments have yet to do since contact. We look at what impacts the AODB and the effects on all the people, plants, swimmers, fliers, and wildlife that rely on clean water flowing through all of the watershed regions that end in the Arctic Ocean.

KOW works with other watershed protection groups and Indigenous communities, anyone who first and foremost honours Indigenous rights and upholds the importance of protecting the Water. All of our work is guided by the Keepers of the Water Declaration formed at the first Water gathering. You can learn more about our beginnings on this page.

ayhay, mussi cho, miigwech, thank you