Hydro-electric plants are promoted as an eco-friendly way of generating power, but the impacts of big hydro schemes on the traditional lifestyles of Aboriginal peoples are devastating. In Manitoba, Canada, the Pimicikamak Cree Nation is fighting for the terms of the 1977 Northern Flood Agreement to be honoured by the Manitoban and Canadian governments and Manitoba Hydro. One million hectares of their forest lands have been damaged by hydro-electric schemes.
Hydro-electric power plants have long been touted by Canadian governments as an environmentally friendly way of generating electricity. Portrayed as clean energy flowing from an endless supply of pristine water, hydro-electricity is now sold to power-hungry consumers in the wake of Kyoto as an alternative to coal burning generating stations. Hydro-electricity continues to be the seemingly guilt free way of satisfying consumer-driven society’s insatiable hunger for cheap power.
To Aboriginal peoples whose territories are in the boreal forest, nothing could be further from the truth. According to Cree and Anishinaabeg traditional teachings, waters and waterways are the lifeblood of our Mother the Earth. River veins flow through our territories gently cleansing the land and replenishing all of Creation. Rivers sustain our families, our communities and our Nations. And so when crown corporations enter our territories without our consent and begin to colonise the veins of our Mother by constructing large-scale industrial dams, it is an assault on the land, our Nations, our knowledge, our communities and our way of life.
It is difficult to find a Métis or First Nations community in the boreal forest of Canada that has not felt the destructive impacts of hydro-electric development. In the beginning, many Anishinaabeg and Cree Elders remember not being told that dams were going to be built until construction was well underway. Only then did governments make meagre attempts at compensating Anishinaabeg and Cree communities for the destruction of their territories.
Provincial governments promoting hydro-electric development are now engaging Aboriginal peoples in one-sided ‘discussion’ before the development begins, but that does not make the impacts of hydro-electric development any less devastating. Water levels in lakes and rivers fluctuate to unnaturally high and low levels at the control of hydro. This causes tremendous shoreline erosion leading to the disappearance of islands and shoreline habitat. The extensive loss of forest over the flooded area in addition to the shoreline creates an even bigger loss of habitat for animals and birds. The alteration of rivers and lakes destroys spawning areas for fish. Dead trees lining shores and at the bottom of reservoirs create abnormal levels of woody matter and sedimentation, all leading to higher levels of methyl mercury. Levels are often so high that fish are too contaminated to eat for several decades after the initial flooding occurs.
And it does not end there. Roads are built to the dams, roads that increase outside access to our territories and literally often pave the way for industrialised deforestation to begin.
For Aboriginal peoples who are intrinsically linked to the land and the waterways, these impacts can have a devastating impact on our cultures and communities. Flooding large areas of our traditional territories without our permission forces our people off the land. Opportunities to participate in the traditional economies of hunting, fishing and trapping are reduced, particularly when dams and fluctuating water and ice levels make it difficult and dangerous to travel on the rivers. This heightens our dependency on non-traditional activities and consumption-based western society. When we are removed from our land we have less access to our traditional foods and medicines. When our sacred, ceremonial and burial sites are destroyed we have fewer places to renew ourselves and practise our cultural and spiritual beliefs. The disrespect, injustice and blatant disregard for our sovereignty and our rights as Nations causes anger, resentment and often feelings of hopelessness in our communities. All of this makes it very difficult for our people to revitalise our traditional cultures, recover from centuries of colonialism and to build sustainable and healthy communities for the coming generations.
The Pimicikamak Cree Nation (PCN), whose territory is located in Northern Manitoba, has been living with the devastating impacts of large-scale hydro-electric development for decades but it is also taking its traditional responsibility to protect the land seriously. The leaders of the PCN say more than a million hectares of land have been affected by hydro, nearly destroying their traditional economy.
The PCN is fighting for the terms of the Northern Flood Agreement to be honoured, a treaty signed in 1977 between the Cree, Manitoba Hydro, the province of Manitoba and the Canadian government. The Northern Flood Agreement included a cash settlement for destroyed lands and several other clauses relating to community development and the remediation of damaged lands. However, the provincial and federal governments have not lived up to the terms of the treaty, leaving the Cree to deal with all of the negative impacts of hydro, effectively subsidising cheap power for Canadians and Americans.
As the Cree are providing power not only to the southern regions of Manitoba but also to northern regions of the USA, PCN has taken its fight for justice to an international audience as a way of putting pressure on the Manitoba government. By launching a consumer awareness campaign in the USA, the PCN hopes to bring attention to the environmental and cultural impacts of hydro-electric development. Meanwhile, the provincial government in Manitoba continues to ignore the PCN while negotiating with other First Nations in the north to build more dams.
The record of large-scale hydro-electric developments in Canada has not been good, with a legacy of broken promises, destroyed rivers, ruined environments and poisoned waters. For this to change, Canada must honour the international agreements it has made with Aboriginal Nations in the past. Canada must make a real commitment to alternative energy production and Canada must stop thinking it can build an economy based on exploitation, supported by unsustainable harvest of natural resources stolen from Aboriginal Nations. |
