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The Responsibilities of Women: Confronting Environmental Contamination in the Traditional Territories of Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows) and Wabauskang First Nation Leanne Simpson (Mississauga), Ph.D., Principle Investigator, Contaminants Project Judy DaSilva (Anishinabekwe), Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek Contaminants Project Coordinator, Grassy Narrows First Nation Bety Rifel (Anishinabekwe), Contaminants Project Coordinator Wabauskang First Nation Patricia Sellers, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of Carolina at Pembroke ABSTRACT From the early 1960s to the late 1970s, Reed Paper dumped more than 50 000 pounds of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system. At the time, Anishinabek people, whose territory encompasses the river system, were dependent upon the river for food and water. Fish from the river system were a staple in the diet of community members, and fshing was an important cultural and economic activity. People got their drinking water from the river and hunted and trapped animals that were also dependent on the same resources. Many community members sufered from severe mercury poisoning, and all communities dependent upon the English-Wabigoon river system continue to deal with the social, cultural and health impacts of living in a contaminated ecosystem. In 2003, a group of women from the communities of Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows) and Wabauskang First Nation, located in North-Western Ontario began to study the impacts of environmental contaminants on their traditional territories using both Anishinabek knowledge and western science. They were concerned about the impact of environmental contaminants on the health and well-being of women and their children. From 2001 to 2005, the two communities completed a large traditional foods testing program and held two Anishinabek Knowledge workshops to discuss the impact of contamination on their communities. The purpose of this paper is to share the women’s, Elders’ and Anishinabek Knowledge Holders perspectives on how contamination continues to impact their communities. KEYWORDS Environmental contamination, traditional foods, Indigenous Knowledge 6 Journal de la santé autochtone, décembre 2009 The Responsibilities of Women Traditional Foodways, the Backbone of which they are able to once again fulfll their responsibilities Community Health to Creation. Revitalizing Indigenous food systems is part raditional food systems or foodways have been the of that larger goal, that requires Elders and Knowledge foundation of community health for Indigenous Holders to actively pass their knowledge down to their Peoples in the Americas since time immemorial. In youth. It requires the protection of Indigenous territories negotiating treaties with settler governments, Anishinabek from contamination and environmental destruction. It T requires that Indigenous People disconnect themselves from people intended to protect these systems in order to ensure the health and well-being of future generations and the western diets and begin to once again live active and healthy continuity of their way of life. Te forces of colonialism, lives, sustained by their traditional foods (Waziyatawin, including deforestation, hydro-electric development and 2005). environmental contamination, have undermined and destroyed aspects of traditional food systems. Attacks on Anishinabe-kwewag and Traditional Foodways traditional food systems are direct attacks on Anishinabek To maintain sustainable traditional food sources, all culture, as it is through these traditional food systems that members of Anishinabek communities had - and continue Indigenous Peoples foster their relations with the natural to have - responsibilities. As mothers, grandmothers, aunties, world, their relationships with other Indigenous nations, sisters, and daughters, Anishinabe-kwewag (Ojibway their economies, their spiritual practices, and the social women) have important responsibilities to do with the land systems that maintain the emotional well-being of families and with matters concerning the nation. Teir relationship and communities. to water is part of those responsibilities. Te economy was fostered through respectful and Water is a purifer, cleansing our bodies and protecting reciprocal relations with the Gifts of Creation, practiced not us from disease. Water is the lifeblood that protects unborn for the purpose of getting rich, but to continue promoting children and nurtures them until they are ready to pass a good life for the generations to come. Te backbone of the through the doorway into this world. Similarly, water is the Anishinabek economic lifeway was the careful harvesting lifeblood of ecosystems, purifying the land through rains of traditional foods, and the ceremonial practices of and natural fooding, and it is the responsibility of women to redistributing the wealth of the harvest amongst community protect that water, to ensure that it is clean and safe to drink. members, particularly to the Elders and to families without Mothering children gives Anishinabe-kwewag the hunters. Complex international trading relationships with responsibility of carefully monitoring the food they feed other Indigenous nations were nurtured in part through their families to keep them healthy. Women engaged in food the trade of traditional foods, which, in turn, maintained preparation are in a unique position to evaluate the quality political relationships between these nations. of their traditional foods, and, based on their experience Traditional foodways provided the foundation for with uncontaminated and healthy foods from the past, traditional Anishinabek governance. Clans tied groups of aunties and grandmothers assist in assessing this quality. people from the same clan to an animal nation. Seasonal Women also often care for the elderly, which allows them ceremonies, that frequently included feasts, maintained an to be close to their Elders, and they are also involved in the essential connection and symbiotic relationship between health care of those who are sick. Womens’ responsibilities the people and the natural world. Food was considered make them clearly aware of the impact of environmental good medicine, a gift from Creation, given to sustain mino contamination on their food systems and therefore on the bimaadiziwin, the “good life” or “the continuous rebirth of health and well-being of their family members. life.” Feasting, both as a way of redistributing wealth and of Te women of Asubpeechoseewagong Netum ofering thanksgiving, was (and remains) an important part Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows) and Wabauskang First of the ritualized spiritual life of Anishinabek people. Nation take their responsibilities very seriously. For In contemporary times, many Indigenous Peoples see years, the women have noticed a decrease in the health the restoration of their freedom and the recognition of their and well-being of their families, particularly of their identity as Indigenous nations as the only way forward. Tey children. In addition to the ‘usual’ increase in diabetes claim a future in which all people are able to decolonize and cancers amongst the older members of their families, themselves and revitalize traditional relationships is one in they have witnessed an increase in neurological disorders, Journal of Aboriginal Health, December 2009 7 The Responsibilities of Women miscarriages, birth defects, and life threatening childhood but their Elders and Anishinabek Knowledge Holders have diseases. Women, Elders and traditional Knowledge Holders continued to report that the mercury contamination is still believe that these illnesses are a result of the environmental in the river system and that it still has signifcant negative contamination that is wreaking havoc on their traditional impacts on the fsh, aquatic animals, water and wildlife, and food sources. still contributes to illness in the community. Tis perspective contrasts sharply with what the Anishinabek people were Mercury Contamination at told at the time. Scientists and government ofcials assured Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek and community members that the system would be completely clean of mercury in 30 years. Wabauskang First Nation Te community of Wabauskang was never compensated Te communities of Asubpeechoseewagong Netum for the mercury contamination, nor have they been tested Anishinabek and Wabauskang have been coping with for mercury poisoning, and community members continue the destructive impacts of unsanctioned industrialized to sufer from health impacts that they attribute to the development on their territory for several decades. It began contamination. Community members (who spoke little in Grassy Narrows in the 1950s when Ontario Hydro English and lived in relative isolation) did not know that fooded a large tract of their territory for hydroelectric they had been exposed to large amounts of mercury until development. Rice beds were destroyed and community the late 1980s. Te people living at Quibell, which is located members were left to deal with the danger and destruction directly downstream from the mill, were drinking river of fuctuating water levels, while Ontario Hydro shipped water and eating fsh throughout the 1970s, unaware of the “cheap and clean” hydro electricity to the south. contamination. Again, the impacts of contamination were In the 1960s, Indian Afairs relocated the community, severe and devastating for the families involved. Several causing another

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