{"id":68,"date":"2018-11-16T22:43:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T22:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/?p=68"},"modified":"2018-11-17T00:17:27","modified_gmt":"2018-11-17T05:17:27","slug":"teen-advocates-clean-drinking-water-first-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/2018\/11\/16\/teen-advocates-clean-drinking-water-first-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen advocates for clean drinking water for First Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Autumn Peltier (right) stands with her mother, Stephanie Peltier<\/p><\/div>\n

As a young girl growing up on Manitoulin Island, Autumn Peltier was shocked to learn about the rampant drinking water problems in Indigenous communities. Now, as a 14-year-old, she\u2019s one of Canada\u2019s youngest water advocates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need it,\u201d Autumn said. \u201cIt is all around us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Autumn grew up in an area with clean drinking water, she was motivated to speak publicly after realizing how pervasive undrinkable water is in First Nations communities elsewhere. \u201cWater is part of life,\u201d Autumn said.<\/p>\n

Autumn began speaking in public about the need for clean drinking water in Indigenous communities as a child. She quickly rose to prominence, challenging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at an Assembly of First Nations meeting last year and speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in March. Friday, she spoke at the Indigenous Women\u2019s Leadership Summit in Gatineau, a conference focused on solving the challenges Indigenous women have faced in government, business, family and community.<\/p>\n

Autumn, a member of the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, does these speeches while still going to Manitoulin Secondary School.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I didn\u2019t work and she didn\u2019t have to go to school, we would probably be speaking every week somewhere,\u201d said Stephanie Peltier, Autumn\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do get overwhelmed sometimes,\u201d Autumn said. \u201cEspecially with school, it can get really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Canada’s commitment to clean drinking water. Ottawa is looking to clean up the water supplies by 2021, and Indigenous women like Autumn are holding the government to that.<\/p><\/div>\n

The federal government aims to have eliminated all drinking water advisories by 2021. But the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer has pointed out that new investments are only reaching 70 percent of what is needed for clean water in Indigenous communities. According to the Suzuki Foundation, the Government of Canada is making little progress on reducing the number of drinking water advisories in Indigenous communities. Currently there are 67.<\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization, access to clean drinking water improves sanitation and hygiene, and eases vulnerability to deadly and infectious disease. Autumn said the message goes beyond Indigenous communities and should be shared worldwide. According to the United Nations, over two billion people lack access to safe water.<\/p>\n

Autumn said her age gives her a unique ability to tell her stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen coming from youth, it\u2019s a stronger message,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Peltier admits her daughter still gets nervous going to events where she is speaking with other accomplished Indigenous women.<\/p>\n

But Peltier said she reassures her daughter by telling her that these women are happy to see her there. \u201cBecause they\u2019re always hoping someone is going to follow behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Near the end of Autumn\u2019s speech, the sound of audience members standing to their feet to applaud came in like rolling thunder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Autumn Peltier is a young woman and an Indigenous Peoples leader holding Ottawa to account on clean drinking water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[27,26,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-clean-drinking-water","tag-first-nations","tag-indigenous-communities","tag-womens-indigenous-leadership","tag-youth-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}