The following remarks were given by Roy Redhead from York Factory First Nation at the Keeyask Generation Project Public Hearing Community Meeting: York Factory First Nation.
“And then the hydroelectric development occurred where the loss — or the elders, our people couldn’t transmit the knowledge, or the hunting knowledge the way that they could, the way that they could have, had we been out on the coast. So that eroded to the loss, to the loss of our — to the loss of the exercise of our Treaty rights to hunt, to fish, to live off the land, to know the medicines and the harvesting that we could have lived that way. So we lost that way. And increasingly our people have grown sicker as a result because we rely on, we are forced to rely on processed food. So that’s contributing to our overall health and welfare as a people here in this community.” – Roy Redhead, York Factory First Nation
Testimony of Roy Redhead from York Factory First Nation. Keeyask Generation Project Public Hearings Community Meeting: York Factory First Nation. (September 26, 2013). Transcript of Hearings Held at George Saunders School in York Factory, MB. Page 78. Retrieved from the MCEC website: http://www.cecmanitoba.ca/hearings/keeyask-generation-project/doc/Transcripts/Public_Hearing_Sept_26,_2013_York_Factory.pdf
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The stock photo used in this post is by NicolasElowe from Canva/Getty Images Pro.
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