Tag: First Nations

WERU News Report 9/24/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Reporting from El Salvador this week and next, as we accompany an international delegation observing anti-mining activities in the country. This week a World Bank tribunal is holding final hearings in a lawsuit a mining company filed against this impoverished country, because they prevented further mining in an attempt to protect the estimate 5% of their water that is not already contaminated.

Today on the News Report we’ll hear from 2 First Nations representatives traveling with the delegation. John Cutfeet is from the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (“KI”) First Nation in Northern Ontario, and Aurora Conley is from the Bad River Band, Lake Superior Chippewa tribe in Wisconsin. They talk about how mining has threatened their communities, and how they’ve fought back:

(For full disclosure: Travel expenses for WERU staff member Amy Browne and volunteer Meredith DeFrancesco were paid through a grant from the Haney Foundation received by the Bangor based group PICA, which coordinates the city sister relationship with Carasque, El Salvador.)

FMI: http://www.stopesmining.org/j25/

Bangor Area Commons 5/1/14

Producer/Editor/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by: John Greenman

This year’s HOPE festival keynote speech from indigenous rights lawyer and activist, Sherri Mitchell. Born and raised on Indian Island, Sherri graduated from the University of Maine magna cum laude and went on to the University of Arizona, where she earned her law degree and a certificate in Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy. She is the director of the Land Peace Foundation, dedicated to the protection of indigenous land rights and works with the Wabanaki confederacy in Maine and the Maritimes and has been involved with the Idle No More movement, launched in the winter of 2012 in Canada to resist Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s policies dismantling the rights of First Nations peoples. She is director of the Land Peace Foundation, an organization dedicated to the protection of indigenous land rights, and works with the Wabanaki confederacy in Maine and the Maritimes.

FMI: http://landpeacefoundation.net/

The 20th annual free HOPE (Help Organize Peace Earthwide) Festival was held on April 26th at the University of Maine in Orono. The festival is held each year “to celebrate Earth Day and all the good work being done my more than 60 organizations working to take care of the earth and each other. The festival offers information, entertainment and interaction.” It is sponsored by the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine

FMI: www.peacectr.org

(NOTE: There are 2 audio files attached to this post. The shorter one is the Bangor Area Commons show as it aired. The longer file is the minimally edited full speech)

RadioActive 1/30/14

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Program Topic: The impacts of Tar Sands extraction on the First nations health, environment and autonomy; Update on South Portland Tar Sands Moratorium

Key Discussion Points:
a) Today we look at the impacts of the rampant contamination by tar sands oil extraction on First Nations communities health, environment and autonomy.
b) We speak with Eriel Deranger, member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation ,who will be on the “Tar Sands Exposed speaking tour in Maine, January 30th and 31st, sponsored by climate activist network 350 Maine.
We also speak with indigenous rights attorney,and Penobscot Nation member, Sherri Mitchell, who will talk about the patterns of i exploitation at the Orono talk.

c) We begin with an update on the current moratorium on tar sands export in South Portland, Maine.

Guests:

A) Emily Figdor, Environment Maine and Protect South Portland

B) Eriel Deranger, memebr of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) of northern Alberta, Canada; ACFN tar sands campaign and communication coordinator.

C) Sherri Mitchell, member of Penobscot Nation; indigenous rights attorney with Land Peace Foundation