The Ontario Municipal Water Association is proud to sponsor Autumn Peltier as a key speaker at Ontario’s Water Conference and Trade Show in Niagara Falls. Autumn Peltier is a 13-year-old Anishinaabe-kwe, and self-described ‘water warrior.’
Autumn is a well-known and vocal advocate for safe drinking water for Indigenous communities and for clean waterways in Canada. She has been advocating for clean drinking water since she was about 8 years old. She comes from Wikwemikong First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. She will be joined by her mother, Stephanie Peltier.
Autumn was inspired by her great aunt, Water Walker Josephine Mandamin, whose 2003 trek around all five Great Lakes began a tradition of walking for water and bringing media and political attention to what threatens our most precious natural resource.
Autumn attended the 2015 Children’s Climate Conference in Sweden, a meeting of 64 concerned, engaged children from 32 different countries that delivered its message to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. Autumn is the only Canadian nominated among 151 nominees for the 2017 Children’s International Peace Prize. She won the 2016 Canadian Living “Me to We” award for the Youth in Action (12 and under).
Her meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Assembly of First Nations gathering in Gatineau, Que., in 2016, resulted in his promise to take steps to protect Canada’s water.
Earlier this year, Autumn was chosen as the 2017 Ontario Junior Citizen award recipient from the Ontario Community Newspaper Association (OCNA). In late March, she addressed the UN General Assembly, telling its 193 member states to ‘Warrior Up’ in their efforts to provide clean and safe water for all nations. This week, Autumn will be speaking about the protection of our water and its significance to Indigenous peoples.
OMWA president, Rosemary K. MacLennan, said, “The Ontario Municipal Water Association is honoured and delighted to present Autumn Peltier as a speaker for this convention. Autumn is a role model for Canadian youth to engage in key issues such as water and the environment. She has proven that her generation’s concerns can and will be heard and recognized, not only by their local elders, but by the whole world. Through her passion and her wisdom, other Canadian youths are inspired to also speak out for their future. Their voices matter and we should all be listening. We hope all attendees at this event will take the time to hear her speak.”
Please join us in welcoming Autumn Peltier to Ontario’s Water Conference in Niagara Falls, and hear her words of advocacy for water: 2:15 p.m., Wednesday May 2, 2018.
by Andrew Henry,
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