The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - Manitoba is honoured to co-host renowned scholars and activists Winona LaDuke and Pamela Palmater in conversation with Dr. Niigaan Sinclair in an important online discussion entitled “Indigeneity, Colonialism and COVID: Land Defenders and Water Protectors in a Pandemic Age.”

***Register through Eventbrite to receive a link to the video conference on the day of the event.***

Previous to the pandemic, First Nations across Canada and their allies were standing up in solidarity with members of the Wet’suwe’ten First Nations blockading the coastal gas link on their territory. Indigenous Nations in the USA continue their battles and have joined us in solidarity. Organizing for justice and self-determination continues despite the pandemic.

As we enter a second wave of the pandemic, it is imperative to understand the needs and perspectives of Indigenous communities in North America. Indigenous leaders are calling for land back and respect for our self-determination and governance over our territories, waters, and resources. Governments have failed to provide adequate healthcare, access to clean water and substantive action on socioeconomic disparities that make Indigenous families, communities and Nations more vulnerable to the pandemic.

This event will focus on this and more as Winona LaDuke, Pamela Palmater and Niigaan Sinclair, discuss how Indigenous people are dealing with ongoing colonization, what has or hasn’t changed due to the pandemic and where Indigenous people and their allies can go from here.

About the speakers

Winona LaDuke is an internationally recognized activist and former Vice-Presidential Candidate of the United States with Ralph Nader (2000, 2004). Winona has spent her life working on issues of sustainable development, renewable energy and food systems, and Indigenous Justice. Based on the White Earth reservation in Northern Minnesota, her latest book To be a Water Protector: The Rise of Windiigoo Slayers (Fernwood, 2020) is out now.

Pamela Palmater is a Mi'kmaq lawyer, professor, author, activist and politician from Mi'kma'ki, New Brunswick, Canada. A frequent media political commentator, she appears for Aboriginal Peoples Television Network's InFocus, CTV, and CBC. She is an associate professor and the academic director of the Centre for Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University. Her latest book Warrior Life: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence (Fernwood, 2020) is out now.

The event will be hosted by Niigaan Sinclair, award-winning writer, editor and activist columns in The Winnipeg Free Press.

Thank you to Assiniboine Credit Union, Fernwood Publishing, the University of Manitoba Native Studies department, Vincent Design and the Winnipeg Foundation for sponsoring this event.