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“It’s time to “warrior up,” stop polluting the planet and give water the same rights and protections as human beings. That’s the message Autumn Peltier, a 13-year-old Canadian, delivered personally to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.
“Many people don’t think water is alive or has a spirit,” the Anishinaabe girl from Wikwemikong First Nation told the diplomats gathered in New York City in her speech on World Water Day. “My people believe this to be true.
“Our water deserves to be treated as human with human rights. We need to acknowledge our waters with personhood so we can protect our waters.”
The five-foot tall teen from Manitoulin Island, Ont., stood on a stool behind the podium so she could reach the microphone.
She had been invited to speak as the “representative of civil society,” joining UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and other international dignitaries for the launch the UN’s International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development.
“By 2050, at least one in four people will live in a country where the lack of fresh water is chronic or recurrent,” Guterres said during his address.
States need to better manage and preserve world water resources, he said. More than 2.1 billion people already lack safe drinking water at home, according to UN figures — and that includes people in Canada.
“No one should have to worry if the water is clean or if they will run out of water,” Peltier said in her speech. “No child should grow up not knowing what clean water is or never know what running water is.
“We all have a right to this water as we need it — not just rich people, all people.””
– CBC News, Canadian teen tells UN ‘warrior up’ to protect water.
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Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #11 – Warrior Up Autumn Peltier.
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
