Aug 3, 2017 - Resistance Fighting Not Drowning: Raise a Paddle Journey from the Pacific Islands to the Tar Sands
“If this continues, I don’t think we have–how many years above water?”
The Pacific Islands are experiencing some of the most direct impacts of climate change in the world. These activists have traveled to the Canadian oil sands to see one of the most glaring examples of the fossil fuel projects impacting their communities.
A couple months ago I took the last journey I would ever take with my friend Indigenous Climate Warrior, Koreti Mavaega Tiumalu. We traveled to Canada’s controversial #tarsands to connect the fight of the #PacificClimateWarriors network with First Nations in Canada fighting the expansion of the Alberta tar sands and its associated pipeline infrastructure.
We wanted to put a face on the #climateimpacts of the Canadian Government doubling down on tar sands and #Pipelines. We wanted to show the impacts ranging from the front line of extraction to the impacts of our rapidly destabilizing climate across Mother Earth.
Since that journey my sister Koreti has traveled on to the spirit world. Please join me in honouring her vision and share this video of the #RaiseAPaddle tour, a journey from the South pacific to the Alberta tar sands. Special thanks to the team at Fusion Media who put this amazing piece together.
For more content on the journey visit: https://350.org/raise-a-paddle/
#KeepitintheGround #WaterisLife
By Clayton Thomas-Muller
Clayton Thomas-Muller is a member of the Treaty #6 based Mathias Colomb Cree Nation also known as Pukatawagan located in Northern Manitoba, Canada. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Clayton is the ‘Stop it at the Source’ campaigner with 350.org. For the last fifteen years he has campaigned across Canada, Alaska and the lower 48 states organizing in hundreds of First Nations, Alaska Native and Native American communities in support of grassroots Indigenous Peoples to defend their traditional territories against the encroachment of the fossil fuel industry. This has included a special focus on the sprawling infrastructure of pipelines, refineries and extraction associated with the Canadian tar sands.
Clayton is an organizer, facilitator, public speaker and writer on Indigenous rights and environmental & economic justice.Twitter: @CreeClayton