What is environmental racism?
In 1982, Benjamin Chavis, a Black civil rights leader from the United States, coined the term “environmental racism.” Chavis defined the concept as:
“… racial discrimination in environmental policy-making, the enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of colour for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our communities, and the history of excluding people of colour from leadership of the ecology movements.”
From Ecojustice.
There's Something in the Water by ISBN: 9781773630571Publication Date: 2018-04-02There's Something In The Water examines the legacy of environmental racism and its health impacts in Indigenous and Black communities in Canada, using Nova Scotia as a case study, and the grassroots resistance activities by Indigenous and Black communities against the pollution and poisoning of their communities.
As long as grass grows: the indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock by Call Number: No call number yetISBN: 9780807073780Publication Date: 2019Interrogating the concept of environmental justice in the U.S. as it relates to Indigenous peoples, this book argues that a different framework must apply compared to other marginalized communities, while it also attends to the colonial history and structure of the U.S. and ways Indigenous peoples continue to resist, and ways the mainstream environmental movement has been an impediment to effective organizing and allyship.
Clean Water & Indigenous Health
- The Water Crisis in Canada's First Nations CommunitiesInteractive map that shows all of the current First Nations communities with drinking water advisories, along with other resources.
- Drinking water quality in Indigenous communities in Canada and health outcomes: a scoping reviewBy Bradford, L. E., Okpalauwaekwe, U., Waldner, C. L., Bharadwaj, L. A. (2016).
- Nibi onje biimaadiiziiwin is not a metaphor: The relationship between suicide and water insecurity in First Nations in Ontarioby Jeffrey Ansloos. Yellowhead Brief #134 | May 3, 2023
- Water is Life: The fatal links between water infrastructure, COVID-19, and First Nations in CanadaJaida Beaudin. Yellowhead Institute. 10 March 2021
During the 1960s and early ‘70s, the chemical plant at the Reed Paper mill in Dryden, Ont., which is upstream of Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows First Nation) dumped 9,000 kilograms of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River. That mercury poisoned the people of Grassy Narrows and other Anishinaabe communities, who are still living with the effects of mercury poisoning today.
A poison stronger than love : the destruction of an Ojibwa community by Call Number: CBH S55 P65 1985ISBN: 9780300033250Publication Date: 1984The book describes the devastating impacts of mercury contamination on the health and livelihood of Grassy Narrows.
Strong hearts, Native lands : the cultural and political landscape of Anishinaabe anti-clearcutting activism by Call Number: NB W55 S77 2012ISBN: 9781438442037Publication Date: 2012
- Children of the poisoned river - CBC NewsFollows the social impacts of environmental devastation at Grassy Narrows from the beginning to 2016.
- Mercury Poisoning in Grassy Narrows: Environmental Injustice, Colonialism, and Capitalist Expansion in CanadaBy Natalia Ilyniak (2014). Using an environmental injustice framework, this paper explores how the case of mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows,an Anishinaabe community in Northwestern Ontario, exists as part of broader colonial processes in Canada.
- “Is there anything good about a water advisory?”: an exploration of the consequences of drinking water advisories in an indigenous communityBetween 2004 and 2013, approximately 70% of all on-reserve communities in Ontario were under at least one Drinking Water Advisory. Despite the widespread impact of Drinking Water Advisories on health and wellbeing, little is known about First Nation individuals' perceptions and experiences living with a Drinking Water Advisory. This study presents information shared by members of a community who have lived with Boil Water Advisories on and off for many years, and a long-term Boil Water Advisory since 2017.
- Boil-Water Advisories and Federal (In)Action: The Politics of Potable Water in Pikangikum First NationIn 2000, water systems failed in both Walkerton, Ontario, and Pikangikum First Nation. After deaths in Walkerton, the Ontario provincial government responded with an inquiry and increased regulation. Although the Walkerton Inquiry was tasked only with reviewing provincial water regulation, it none the less exposed longstanding systemic problems with the provision of safe drinking water on reserves in Northern Ontario. This led the federal government to develop a series of new protocols for the management of water on reserves. These protocols have failed abjectly, however, a fact illustrated by events in Pikangikum, where the water problem, 17 years later, remains unsolved. The difference in the standard of care provided in Walkerton and Pikangikum reflects colonialism, racism, and a fundamental failure of the federal government to live up to its constitutional responsibilities.
Pollutants and Indigenous Health
Aamjiwnaang First Nation is located in the middle of Ontario's "Chemical Valley." Residents of Aamjiwnaang and other communities nearby have long suspected the pollutants in the air to be harmful to their health. Levels of carcinogenic chemicals in the surrounding air have been found to be 44 times higher than is considered safe. (Canada: First Nation exposed to high levels of cancer-causing chemicals (2021). The Guardian).
Everyday exposure: indigenous mobilization and environmental justice in Canada's chemical valley by Call Number: 9780774832632ISBN: 9780774832632Publication Date: 2016Living in the polluted heart of Chemical Valley, members of Aamjiwnaang report a declining rate of male births in addition to abnormal rates of miscarriage, asthma, cancer, and cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses. While starvation policies and smallpox-laced blankets might be an acknowledged part of Canada's past, this book reveals how the colonial legacy of inflicting harm on Indigenous bodies persists through a system that fails to adequately address health and ecological suffering in First Nations communities.
Journalism, politics, and the Dakota Access Pipeline: Standing Rock and the framing of injustice by Call Number: PC M66 J68 2019ISBN: 9780815399414Publication Date: 2019This title explores tensions surrounding news media coverage of Indigenous environmental justice issues, identifying them as a fruitful lens through which to examine the political economy of journalism, American history, human rights, and contemporary U.S. politics.
Our history is the future : Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the long tradition of indigenous resistance by Call Number: No call number yetISBN: 9781786636737Publication Date: 2019Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance leading to the #NoDAPL movement from the days of the Missouri River trading forts through the Indian Wars, the Pick-Sloan dams, the American Indian Movement, and the campaign for Indigenous rights at the United Nations.
- We still live here : First Nations, Alberta oil sands, and surviving globalism byCall Number: NB H35 W4 2016A critically informed work that seeks to explore the range of challenges associated with living downstream from Fort McMurray Oil Sands mining operations. The authors contributing to this book include Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors, First Nation knowledge keepers, Elders and knowledgeable academics.
A line in the tar sands : struggles for environmental justice by Call Number: NB B53 L56 2014ISBN: 9781629630397Publication Date: 2014
- Out of the ashes: Ashcroft Indian Band and the Elephant Hill wildfire – Insights for public health responses to long-term evacuation(2021). This case study by the National Collaborating Centres for Public Health (NCCPH) explores the evacuation of Ashcroft Indian Band following the Elephant Hill wildfire in 2017. It includes insight into the health and social impacts of the evacuation, as well as the role of public health to support long-term emergency planning and recovery.
- Fanning the Flames of Disaster: The Role Colonialism Plays in the Impact of Wildfire on Indigenous People in Northern AlbertaMasters Thesis. Alana K. Kehoe (2020).