Since 2020, Fox Lake and four neighbouring Cree nations — York Factory, Shamattawa, Tataskweyak and War Lake First Nations — have been working toward just that. Burgeoning funding and public support for Indigenous-led conservation has offered the nations an opportunity for recognition of sovereignty over their traditional lands and the chance to safeguard them for generations to come. Spearheaded by York Factory, the five nations are working on a proposal for an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) called Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek, which would recognize the nations’ longtime stewardship of the region and leverage federal funds to formally manage and protect their shared homelands under Indigenous laws and governance.
Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek, which translates as “the land we want to protect,” is one of more than 50 IPCA proposals that have sprung up across Canada since the federal government began funding these critical conservation efforts in 2018. Indigenous-led conservation has, in recent years, been recognized as key to preserving biodiversity and meeting international goals to protect 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030.
Like other proposals, Kitaskeenan isn’t without its challenges: the waterways have been flooded, re-routed and polluted in the name of hydroelectric development, prospectors have surveyed for underground minerals and politicians have floated plans to use the northern lands to pipe crude oil, lay fibre internet cables or build new ports. All the while, the nations have been divided by displacement, flood settlements and the erosion of their rights to hunt, fish and trap on their own lands.
But the five Cree — or Inninew — nations are hoping Kitaskeenan will help to mend the divisions of the past and redefine the future prosperity of the northeast coast by preserving the land, water, language and culture for generations to come. The proposal, they say, is a chance to come together with one voice to decide what comes next for their traditional lands.
Story by Julia-Simone Rutgers.
Countless hydro lines stretch over the forest, bogs and rivers that border the Nelson River north of Gillam, Manitoba. The Kettle, Long Spruce and Limestone Generating Stations all dam the Nelson River between Gillam and Hudson’s Bay.
The Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Fox Lake Cree Nation Culture Camp is situated in forest close to where the Limestone River flows into the Nelson River, just downstream from the Limestone Generating Station.
The animals and fish in the region have changed since the dams arrived, says Martha Spence, an Anglican reverend and elder from Tataskweyak. There aren’t as many birds or caribou, the animals they trap — like rabbits — don’t taste the same. The fish aren’t as firm or meaty as they used to be.
Kelly Anderson of Fox Lake Cree Nation while cutting wood to be used for the sweat lodge as well as for fires at the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Fox Lake Cree Nation Culture Camp.
Lawrence Saunders II of Fox Lake Cree Nation (originally from York Factory First Nation) chops wood as his five-year-old boy Lawrence Saunders III watches.
Kelly Anderson of Fox Lake Cree Nation while cutting wood to be used for the sweat lodge as well as for fires at the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Fox Lake Cree Nation Culture Camp.
Lawrence Saunders maintains a chainsaw while chatting with Kelly Anderson as the two Fox Lake Cree Nation residents cut wood to be used for the sweat lodge as well as for fires at the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Culture Camp.
Robben Constant of York Factory led sweats at the camp throughout the week. Constant wants to see York Factory re-establish a presence in their original home — the Hudson Bay coast.
Twelve-year-old Memry Anderson and her ten-month-old sister Miley Anderson sit together in a stroller.
Nelson Henderson, a Manitoba Hydro journeyman from Wabowden.
"This is where I learned everything. When you’re out here, you’re not alone. Even though you are alone, if you’re not with anybody, you’re not alone. It’s going to sound weird but I sit in the bush, I make a fire, have a coffee and I can talk to people. I hear people talking to me. I don’t know if it’s spirits or just in my head but it’s so relaxing, tranquil. I can hear my brother laughing.
Look at these little ones. That’s what this is about."
Countless hydro lines stretch over the forest, bogs and rivers that border the Nelson River north of Gillam, Manitoba. The Kettle, Long Spruce and Limestone Generating Stations all dam the Nelson River between Gillam and Hudson’s Bay.
Phoenix Chornoby, 10, of War Lake First Nation catches a brook trout in the Limestone River near the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Fox Lake Cree Nation Culture Camp.
Randy Jr. Naismith of Gillam/Fox Lake First Nation holds freshly caught brook trout in the Limestone River. The trout were pan-fried for elders and other guests during the culture camp public launch event.
Phoenix Chornoby, 10, of War Lake First Nation with a freshly caught brook trout in the Limestone River near the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Fox Lake Cree Nation Culture Camp.
Freshly caught brook trout are cleaned and filleted in preparation to be pan-fried at the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Fox Lake Cree Nation Culture Camp in early September.
Cynthia Massan of Fox Lake Cree Nation cradles her five-month-old granddaughter Leida Beardy-Massan.
Phyllis Sinclair, a musician based in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., with family from Kettle Rapids
"It’s really important to come back and to honour what the [ancestors] did and to protect what they did because nothing came easy. We come back to ensure that this place is always honoured in their memory, out of respect for them and for what we have to leave our children.
In the non-Indigenous way you think of everything as a right. … In the Indigenous way of thinking, sure we have rights but more than that we have responsibility. When people come in to develop, they don’t have an intimate connection to the land. When they come driving out here, all they see are big vast areas of land, trees … it becomes a commodity. We don’t see things as commodities, we see things as our responsibilities. It’s important that our people who have this connection are the stewards of these places. That’s why self-governance is important. Somebody coming in will not have the same interest, the same connection to the land that we do."
Participants learn caribou tufting and make keychains during the public launch event at the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Fox Lake Cree Nation Culture Camp.
Rose Hart of Nelson House works on a caribou tufting keychain. Hart works with the Keewatin Tribal Council, working with residential school survivors, providing crisis response and providing grief and trauma supports. She uses creativity to help heal trauma, sewing ribbon skirts, ribbon shirts, moss bags and other items.
Understanding the medicines that the land provides has offered Dylan Bignell a way to escape what he calls “destructive outlets” that are “far too available” to youth in the north. His non-profit, Tapwewin Health, uses on-the-land learning to make space to talk about grief and trauma, he says.
Morris Beardy, Okimaw (leader) of Fox Lake Cree Nation.
"We use the water for navigation, we used it for hundreds of years and now we can’t do that. We used to go from Gillam all the way to Shamattawa, to York Factory and all the way to Churchill. My mother was telling me how when she was a little girl, with my Uncle Robert, they used to start around here [Fox Lake]. [Her dad] would be hunting and fishing around here and go in his canoe with my mum and Uncle Robert all the way up the coast to Churchill on a boat to go work on the train over there in Churchill. After the summer was done, he would come back again. He did that for years. Those waters that we’re talking about are very crucial to our livelihoods. Those are our roads.
Fox Lake has been impacted by flooding. We all know that. It’s devastating. We live with that every day. There’s very little water to use to launch our boats when we go to Conawapa. Five years ago I went to Conawapa and I walked three-quarters out on the river just in my running shoes … three-quarters of the way on the Nelson River, that’s how shallow the water was. We couldn’t go hunting or fishing or moose hunting … there was no water.
We’re being told that we can’t eat some of the fish out of the Nelson River … because of high mercury content. That’s very concerning. The fish are our livelihood. The animals … that’s what’s sustained us for thousands and thousands of years, and now look where we are. We’re having to fight to protect what we rely on.
We’ve been fighting 76 years to get our land back. Our footprints are all around here."
The Manitoba Hydro Kettle Generating Station on the Nelson River at Gillam, Manitoba.
There are already a handful of protected areas along the Hudson Bay coast, mostly in the form of provincial and national parks or wildlife management areas. Other parts of the region have been heavily impacted by mining, hydroelectric generation and other industrial developments.
Dylan Bignell of Thompson feels the spray from the Nelson River while Ryan West, Land Base Coordinator with Jordan’s Principle tours guests along the river between the Limestone Generating Station and the Long Spruce Generating Station northeast of Gillam, Manitoba.
Geese fly over Manitoba Hydro transmission towers and forest along the Nelson River between the Limestone Generating Station and the Long Spruce Generating Station northeast of Gillam, Manitoba.
A pair of bald eagles sit atop utility poles just outside of Gillam, Manitoba.
Phoenix Chornoby, 10, of War Lake First Nation pokes at a campfire.
Nelson Henderson of Gillam/Fox Lake Cree Nation (second from right) entertains a crowd around a fire at the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Culture Camp.
Phyllis Sinclair of Winnipeg (originally Churchill) dances with friends during live music on the final evening of the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Fox Lake Cree Nation Culture Camp public launch event.
Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek, which translates to “the land we want to protect,” would enable the five nations to formally manage and protect the land and waters under Indigenous laws and governance.