Last week, the Chipewyan Prairie First Nation in Alberta spoke out about a legal battle it is engaged in to have the Athabasca River basin awarded personhood status.
If successful, the river, which is a major transportation route for First Nations there as well as a source of food and spiritual identity, would enjoy the same rights enjoyed by the human species.
It’s about time.
“Industry does not seem to understand that the river has a spirit and that what we do to the river, we do to ourselves,” said an Elder in a CBC interview, noting she has seen the river almost dry up in her lifetime.
What are we doing to the Earth?
This would not be the first time that protection under the law has been granted to a water body. The Magpie River in Quebec, the Whanganui in New Zealand, the Atrato in Colombia, and the Ganges have all been given personhood status and protection and the right to survive just like humans.
Anyone in Yellowknife Bay has seen the drastic drop in water levels that left houseboats beached and, to the south, barges unable to make their way into Hay River. Supply sources have been cut off all over the territories, driving food prices up and making transportation impossible.
Thanks to these low water levels, we are in trouble. This year is not expected to be much better than the summer of 2023, especially with B.C. failing to open dams due to concern about an imminent drought there.
We are experiencing an international shortage of water thanks to rapidly rising temperatures caused by humans. We treat our water horribly, yet it is the main contributor to our existence.
Researchers suggest that 60 per cent of the human body is composed of water — the brain and heart 73 per cent and the lungs 83. We are the water, and the water is us. When we abuse it, we abuse ourselves and each other.
Of all the openings worth attending last week, perhaps the most important was the display at the Prince of Wales Nothern Heritage Centre that showed photographs of Northern water in all its beauty. It was breathtaking, just like the many books written about this precious body, including the new book by Patrick Scott and Paul Andrew, As the River Flows. In the North, we have always celebrated the great lake knowing she has her own spirit, just like us. Yet, because of the chronic abuse, her spirit is failing. She is desperate for healing too.
Once again, the human species is killing the very thing that keeps us alive. The wounding happens from micro to macro.
While it is wonderful to see so many people walking through the bay with their canine companions, it is discouraging to see how many let their furry friends leave their deposits on the pristine snow whose beauty takes our breath, and that of the many visitors to our land, away.
Why do we see her as a commodity instead of lifeblood itself?
We think she will naturally clean herself, yet she can’t, so we dump endless amounts of arsenic, waste, plastic and untreated garbage into her veins so that the many animal species that depend on her (including us, of course) are dying.
We are in the middle of a climate change catastrophe and the sixth mass extinction caused by humans. And that extinction is the result of our individual and collective failure to give nature the respect it deserves.
Our every action counts, from picking up after our pets to minimizing industry’s impacts. It all matters. With each step, we determine our fate and that of generations to come.
The last laugh, of course, will be on us because the water will be here long after we are gone. She will heal and, in that process, she will make the world green and vibrant again. The water doesn’t need us, but we will be lost without her.
Let’s hope that the protections being sought by Keepers of the Water, the Alberta Wilderness Association and Eco-justice are successful, and that the Athabasca River basin gets the help and care it so desperately needs. And for our part, let’s set an example and give the water and future generations the respect they deserve.
Be the change.
—Nancy Vail is a longtime Yellowknifer concerned with social justice.