Danika Littlechild Shares Insights About the Connection Between Water and Reconciliation
In light of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Day, we ask you to take time to reflect on and make space for the painful history of injustice that First Nations, Inuit, Metis peoples experienced with settler Canadians. To make room for the truth of the intergenerational harm caused by residential schools and to honour Indigenous Peoples’ experiences. Part of this includes contemplating your own role and your community’s role in restoring respectful relationships with Indigenous Peoples.
It was an honour and we are truly grateful for the time Danika Littlechild took to share not only her thoughts, but her lived experience on the topic of water and reconciliation. She brings a wealth of wisdom that encompasses both head and heart.
EARLY EXPERIENCES OF WATER ISSUES
Danika Littlechild learned from firsthand experience that clean and healthy water is not a guarantee for those living on First Nations reserves. Born and raised in Ermineskin Cree Nation, in Maskwacis Treaty 6 Territory, Littlechild recalls bathing in just a few inches of water as a child. Much of the time, her family’s household water - and the greater Ermineskin community - was under a boil water advisory.
UNESCO WORK HIGHLIGHTS WATER
As a young adult, Littlechild worked for UNESCO while attending university. After beginning to practice law, her work with UNESCO brought the topic of water, on a professional level, to center stage for her.
2003 was the International Year of Freshwater, which highlighted how much of the world was either living without clean drinking water or proper sanitation. It also drew attention to the need to protect the lakes, rivers and streams environments that are critical to maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems. It was also the year that Alberta created its Water for Life strategy, under which WPACs were formed.
Littlechild was one of the few Indigenous people working for UNESCO Canada at the time, so she says, “I helped them to map out a way of talking about First Nations/Aboriginal Peoples (at that time) and water.” This began by looking at what work had been done up until that point, which she adds, “was not a lot.” From there, she was able to turn a critical eye to what existed and what was still lacking. This work was a precursor to the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act (2013), which has since been repealed (in part, due to lack of Indigenous consultation).
After this work, Littlechild became ”really engaged in water” and carved out a reputation as someone with legal expertise and an ability to advise First Nation communities about water - and other environmental concerns.
MASTER OF LAWS: FIRST NATIONS & WATER
In 2013, Littlechild returned to school to complete a Master of Laws degree at the University of Victoria. This work allowed her “to put 100% of my time and energy into thinking deeply about First Nations and water”. Although public and academic interest at the time was limited, her thesis work “Transformation and Re-Formation: First Nations and Water in Canada” is a topic that gained momentum in the years following its publication. Littlechild notes that most Canadians now have some awareness around the fact that water is a critical and ongoing issue for Indigenous Reserves.
Over the past two decades, Littlechild has advised the Assembly of First Nations on water issues, given talks at their AGMs, been on panels, and written solutions for them. She’s also talked a lot about water with a great variety of ENGOs and water organizations. She says this work has been rewarding and meaningful to her.
When asked what about a big takeaway from her master’s work, Littlechild replied, “We need a shift in our collective ethic around how we approach water.” She adds, “There is so much that Indigenous Peoples have to offer to Canadians around this topic”.
THE NEED FOR INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES
Littlechild tells a story that exemplifies this need for Indigenous perspectives. While facilitating the first Indigenous Advisory Circle for Banff National Park in 2018, she heard a story from one of the Park Superintendents. Parks staff had invited a group of Indigenous elders to tour the Cave & Basin [historic site of thermal hot springs] facility. The Parks staff said to these elders, “We’re going to take you to the place of origin and then we’re going to show you how we manage this water, how we steward this water so that the public can come and enjoy it in the form of the hot springs.” They were shown how many the water gets filtered before it goes into the hot springs pool that people can enjoy its benefits. After showing all the facilities and equipment and the behind-the-scenes parts of the operation, the Superintendent thought that they had really impressed these elders with their water management. Littlechild continues, “At the end, they were sitting in the boiler room and the Parks staff person said, ‘Does anyone have any questions?’ And one of the elders raised their hand, and they said, ‘When does the water get to rest?’”
Littlechild calls this “an emblematic story for me, an emblematic moment; of the different types of ethics you can have towards water.” The story obviously impacted the Superintendent and its ripple effect for the Parks staff in Banff led to the establishment of an Indigenous Advisory Circle.
One of the greatest takeaways for Littlechild of all her work around water has been that water issues are not just about technically providing safe water. For her, “water is an area in which you can have a multiplicity of perspectives and interests and it really is about how we can respectively engage – not just with each other as human beings, but with water as an animate entity”.
In the case of the Indigenous Advisory Circle, Banff National Park started integrating standards which engaged different knowledge systems and respecting those knowledge systems. An example of this is being “more willing to make accommodation for things like ceremony and the gatherings of Indigenous Peoples that have been traditional to those places. That is really important,” says Littlechild.
INDIGENOUS CIRCLE OF EXPERTS (ICE) TARGET BIODIVERSITY
In 2017 and 2018, Littlechild served as Vice-Chair for the Indigenous Circle of Experts (ICE), which she calls “a genuine panel of Indigenous Peoples”. ICE fell under the Pathway to Canada Target 1, as part of Canada’s commitment to biological diversity. Its initial goal was “By 2020, at least 17% of terrestrial areas and inland water, and 10% of marine and coastal areas of Canada are conserved through networks of protected areas and other effective area-based measures”.
ICE worked with provincial and territorial representatives “to do the heavy lifting of what issues we [Indigenous Peoples] had to grapple with and what some of the issues were around biodiversity and conservation”. One of the main tools to see this framework put into action were the Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), as well as specific research projects that embodied the values of the ICE work. Their work led to the report “We Rise Together”.
FOSTERING AN ETHICAL SPACE
Littlechild says she has devoted much of her recent time to writing and speaking about “ethical space”. Within an ethical space, all knowledge systems are viewed as valid and worthy of respect. No one system dominates or needs to legitimize another. Parties sharing an ethical space need to be flexible and open to change as opposed to forcing desired outcomes.
Littlechild says her passion for trying to bridge knowledge systems doesn’t come from “presuming to have this incredible deep ecological knowledge, but rather that I think it’s really important for people to be reflexive about their own systems – and to know the limits of their own systems. And to stop thinking of their own systems as the be all and end all.”
ENGOs & ORGANIZATIONS: MAKING SPACE & BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Littlechild says that ENGOs need to not only figure out what an Indigenous perspective is on water, but to learn how to “build good relations with Indigenous Peoples first.” After that, they need to ask how they can “make appropriate space for them – with appropriate recognition - for them to really express themselves about water.” This means “being recognized as experts on water, people who have a specific type of expertise on water.”
From there, this allows space for different ways of approaching advocacy, communication, community engagement. “And normalizing values around water and thinking about water as a living entity.”
As a starting place, Littlechild suggests that governing documents contain the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the 94 Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action. She adds that it’s helpful to note expressly which Calls to Action an organization is working on.
She says she’s heard a lot of non-Indigenous NGOs voice that they struggle with creating connections with Indigenous communities. She says, “It really is just about talking to people. Creating activities that engage communities, through schools, other community organizations or events. Showing up is half of it. People get comfortable seeing your face, then they’re much more likely to be comfortable sitting down with you.”
THE ĂRRAMĂT PROJECT: INDIGENOUS WELL-BEING & BIODIVERSITY
Not long after joining the academy at Carleton University in 2020, Littlechild received a call from an acquaintance. Brenda Parlee is a well-established University of Alberta researcher whom Littlechild had crossed paths with while working on a project related to Chronic Wasting Disease. Parlee was putting together a grant application for research that helps communities and is Indigenous-led. Littlechild said she felt that there had already been a lot of work on Indigenous Peoples and biodiversity, but she’d be interested if they could add the health and well-being aspect to the proposal.
In early, 2022, it was announced that $24-million would be given to Ărramăt: Strengthening Health and Well-Being through Indigenous-Led Conservation and Sustainable Relationships with Biodiversity. Over half of the funds will go to place-based research in two dozen countries, with Parlee and Littlechild as two of the six Co-Principal Investigators.
BACK TO BASICS: WATER'S IMPACT ON HYGIENE & SELF-ESTEEM
While working as a lawyer, Littlechild returned to live on her home reserve. She would often tell people when she went away for work, one of the real luxuries was getting to have a bath “I was very privileged because I’d get flown out to this meeting or that meeting. And so, I could have a bath. This is the reality that a lot of First Nations exist within. And so, it leaks into other parts of their lives.” She adds that this is something most Canadians can’t really fathom because so much water is used without any thought.
Littlechild says, “The inability to have basic hygiene is very impactful a person’s experience in public, in the workplace, in going to get groceries.”
Littlechild recalls hearing about a water organization in Africa where they’d built a well. The builders returned a year later and asked the local people what the best thing was about the well. They were expecting them to say, we can walk down the street and get water, but one woman said, “We can be beautiful now.”
Littlechild emphasizes, “How that matters for self-esteem, for confidence, how we get treated.” She adds, “Hygiene, to me is also a big part of the story that nobody ever really talks about. “The lack of access to basic hygiene is huge. “
LINKS
94 Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action
Watch stories of Residential School Survivors
Update on the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act
Danika Littlechild’s Master’s thesis: “Transformation and Re-Formation: First Nations and Water in Canada”
Indigenous Circle of Experts (ICE)’s Report “We Rise Together”
Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Water for Life strategy