Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

skills

Indigenous interns graduate from drinking water internship program

Indigenous interns graduate from drinking water internship program

Anishinabek Nation celebrated the graduation of 14 interns from the Georgian Bay Drinking Water Internship Program recently. In association with the Ontario Water First Education & Training Inc. and Waabnoong Bemjiwang Association of First Nations (WBAFN), Gezhtoojig Employment & Training, the paid internship program started in June 2021. It offers great opportunity as it recruits young Indigenous adults to be in the drinking water treatment industry. The program gives students the knowledge and experience to obtain entry-level certifications required to begin careers in water treatment. Through the skills they obtain in this internship program, students become qualified personnel, supporting communities much like our own, on the the unceded territories of the Secwépemc and Ktunaxa peoples and the land chosen as home by the Métis peoples of B.C., in having access to safe, clean drinking water for the foreseeable future.

Alumna-led venture amplifies voices of Indigenous water treatment operators

Alumna-led venture amplifies voices of Indigenous water treatment operators

When Bita Malekian, BSc (Eng)’18, MEng’21, received her bachelor’s degree from the Schulich School of Engineering, she was inspired by the call to action to, as she says, “use the skills and knowledge I learned to give back to my community.” Since then, Malekian has launched Water Movement (WM), a venture supported by the Calgary Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. The initiative provides a formal platform for Indigenous water treatment operators across Canada to connect, ask questions and access a video library that features tutorials on a wide variety of topics, from managing treatment plants to tips on testing chlorine residue in water.

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