Environment and Climate Change Canada is launching a special week-long Indigenous Nature Conservation Film Festival, featuring nine short films on nature conservation initiatives from across Canada beginning today, on National Indigenous Peoples Day, through its social media accounts. Indigenous leaders show us the lands, wildlife, and cultures they have protected for millennia and will continue to nurture for the future. Videos highlight the strengthened partnership between Indigenous Peoples and the Government of Canada to formally protect and conserve more lands and oceans across the country.
The film festival will kick off with a Facebook live chat today at 4:00 p.m. (EDT) with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, interviewing Director Valérie Courtois and Deputy Director Dahti Tsetso of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative on the subject of Indigenous Guardians.
Whether it is the efforts of Fort Folly First Nation in New Brunswick protecting traditional lands, or the Guardians work of Dene Tha' First Nations in Bistcho Lake, Alberta, the Festival lets us discover the beauty of the music, words, scenery and commitment to nature conservation expressed in each unique story.
Indigenous Guardians is an Indigenous initiative led by First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities across the country. This work highlights what Indigenous Peoples have always done on these lands, waters and ice to monitor ecological and climatic health, maintain cultural sites, and protect sensitive areas and species in their traditional territories.
