A member of the Athabasca Chipewayan First Nation was in North Battleford Dec. 16 spreading her message of opposition to the development in the tar sands.
Susana Deranger was the speaker at North Battleford Public Library. The subject of her presentation was "Tar Sands, Mining, Forestry Development and the Destruction of Our Homeland." She is the co-founder of Indigenous Women Without Borders, and has travelled across the globe promoting her message of environmentalism and respect for the Earth.
Deranger spent a number of years working in the Amazon in Peru, and joined the climate conference in Bolivia earlier this year to spread her message.
She now lives in Regina, but said she was forced off of her land at Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta that she said has become "ground zero" for the tar sands development.
"It's very emotional for me," she told the audience, because "we've lost out whole way of life. We can't drink the water, we can't eat the animals, we can't fish, and there's rare cancers there." She said she lost 13 family members because of tar sands development.
She presented a multimedia presentation to the small but dedicated audience at the library auditorium, showing videos outlining the damage she says was caused by tar sands development. Deranger said she believes the world is heading the wrong direction because of the development activity.
"If we keep going the way we are going, we are going to be going downhill and the dinosaurs will have lived longer than we did," Deranger said.
Deranger talked about some of the activities of the Awajun Wampis in Peru, who staged a blockade protesting against mining companies encroaching on their land - a blockade that ended in tear gassing and a large number of protesters 小蓝视频 killed in June 2009.
Deranger pointed the finger at Canadian based companies for their mining activities around the world, and called Canada a major human rights violator, saying the country's reputation around the world is 小蓝视频 harmed.
"Canada is not loved like we used to be loved," said Deranger.
In response to the development, Deranger called for systemic changes including a return to respect for the land and moves towards a more traditional way of life. She also expressed her support for the Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth at the World Peoples Summit on Climate Change held in Bolivia.
"The system has to change," said Deranger.
