Unit Destination Reflection - Lummi Nation

Please view this short documentary about the “Chemical Valley” in Ontario Canada and the First Nation of Aamjiwnaang. The Aamjiwnaang reservation is surrounded by a huge petrochemical industry and is inundated from this source by toxic pollutants. These environmental hazards have been linked to multiple health problems in the community, as well as to an artificial gender imbalance among the residents (also mentioned by Naomi Klein in This Changes Everything):

  • What feelings does this video bring up for you?
  • Does anything in this story surprise you?
  • What connection do you see in this story (or in your general knowledge) between environmental damage and the dispossession of First Peoples?
  • What would it mean for us to bear witness to the suffering described in this video?
  • How might one act on a feeling of indignation at this suffering without seeing oneself as a “savior”?

 

Unit 5: Spiritual Practice
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