We worked with the Canadian water agency to look at ways to engage indigenous women. If you know anything about the new stamp that just came out honouring Josephine, women have been trying to have their voices heard regarding water for some time. They largely have not been at the table in their own communities, including me.
We tend to do the work on the grassroots level. We improve services. We ensure that elders have water, but we're not at the decision-making table.
When I visited the ANC in South Africa when they first came into power, I visited the land claims commission and water commission there. They ensured that all committees had 50% women at all tables at all times. I think that's a good standard to go by.
As a matriarchal society, we would be the ones in control historically, especially of water, and the men would be supporting our decisions. Because of colonialism, we tend to have been pushed into the shadows along with youth, who are desperately needed in training.
We're trying to develop a research institute to train our young people because they're going to be inheriting quite a mess, if you will. The Grand River has over 100 dams. It's our source water. It has 100 years of contamination from Uniroyal, which made Agent Orange and other things.
We really have a big job and we're not preparing this generation, either indigenous or non-indigenous, to work together to improve the quality of our source water.
