Episode 27: Water Crisis with Chief Chris Moonias - Neskantaga First Nation

Ahkameyimok Podcast with Perry Bellegarde

“It’s very dehumanizing what we are going through. Water is a basic human right.”

Neskantaga First Nation has the longest standing boil water advisory in Canada, twenty-five years and counting. And now the northern Ontario Ojibwe Nation has been evacuated to Thunder Bay for the second time in two years because of serious problems with the water supply, an unexplained oily sheen on the community reservoir. Chief Chris Moonias tells National Chief Bellegarde about the impact of moving his entire First Nation to Thunder Bay during a pandemic, why the government has failed over and over to provide clean water to his community and what this says about treatment of First Nations in Canada.

Chief Chris Moonias is one of the featured speakers at the AFN Virtual Water Summit on November 24th, 2020. For more information visit AFN.ca

A big thanks goes out to the Red Dog Singers of Treaty 4 Territory in Saskatchewan for our theme music.

The Ahkameyimok Podcast is produced by David McGuffin of Explore Podcast Productions.