Keepers of the Water and Indigenous Knowledge Wisdom Center are pleased to present this two-day in-person gathering. Indigenous people have stewarded the land since the beginning of time, we hold the answers to protecting water and this will be discussed by looking further at the following topics; UNDRIP, Doctrine of Discovery, Free Prior and Informed Consent, Criminalization of Indigenous people on our lands, The Indian Act, Canadian Legal System vs. Indigenous Legal Systems, Alberta Regulatory System, Before Contact, Looking at how much Canada spends fighting Indigenous people in the colonial court systems, and The Alberta Tarsands Tailings Ponds and the threats to Water and how this infringes on Indigenous Rights.

Due to travel accommodations, we've adjusted the start time of this presentation to 5 pm to allow for those leaving the opportunity to attend this important event.

Keepers of the Water Presents: Living Downstream of the Oil Sands: What You Need to Know About the World’s Largest Industrial Project

Northern United Place, 54 St & 50a Ave, Yellowknife, NT on Thursday, July, 21st, 2022, 5:00 pm till 6:30 pm. This free event is open to the public

Keepers of the Water Presents, Living Downstream of the Oil Sands: What You Need to Know About the World’s Largest Industrial Project

Northern United Place is located at 54 St & 50a Ave, Yellowknife, NT. On Thursday, July, 21st, 2022 from 6:30 pm till 9:00 pm.

This free event is open to the public.

Contact Info: Jesse Cardinal: 780-520-7108, Daniel T’seleie: 867-444-0509

A delegation from the Keepers of the Water (KOW) grassroots organization will be attending the annual Dene National Assembly from July 18th to the 21st, 2022, hosted at the Wiliideh Site (Yellowknife River) in the Akaitcho Territory.

In 1884, traditional Indigenous ceremonies such as the potlatch, ghost dance, shake tent, and sundance were banned under the 1876 Indian Act. Our people were arrested for conducting or participating in traditional ceremonies and the Canadian government forcibly took their ceremonial materials away. Our songs, prayers, sacred items, and ceremonies were hidden in order to be secretly kept alive until such a time comes for our Peoples to return to our Land and live our traditional ways in a modern world. The ban on our traditional ways remained in effect until 1951.

Keepers of the Water, Board of Directors Co-Chair, Cleo Reese

Image from page 29 of the 50 Years of Sprawling Tailings - Mapping decades of destruction by oil sands tailings report co authored by Gillian Chow-Fraser of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), and Alienor Rougeot of Environmental Defence Canada (EDC)

Vista coal mine expansion project must undergo federal impact assessment

Treated tailings from Alberta’s tar sands operations may be flowing into NWT waters as early as 2025. Tailings are a toxic, liquid by-product of bitumen extraction and upgrading. This industrial waste is stored in man-made lakes that have grown to an unfathomable size of 1.1 trillion litres.

The Keepers of the Water Newsletter is out! Check out the Spring 2022 Edition and learn more about all the work we have done so far and how you can take action to support our work!

Everyday, Water is Life!

Let’s get connected!

In our culture, we understand that no one’s role is more or less significant than another’s. On International Women’s Day, we lift up the water protection work that countless Women and Two-Spirit community members picked up on our collective reconnection journey with the land, our culture, our identities, our Ceremonies and our roles within our cosmology. We recognize and honour those who have walked before us, laying the path forward for our work to protect water and to ensure safe drinking water for Indigenous communities downstream from the toxic tar sands and tailing lakes.

Cyanotoxins have been reported as the cause of death for pets that swim in or drink contaminated surface water, leading a local activist to question what this water will do to wild animals, and the people that live year-round along this lake.

Read about what KOW has been up to over the last few moths!

Join us for this webinar on World Water Day about Indigenous knowledge on water and the history of water licensing in Alberta