Image: Mount Yamnuska, aptly called Îyâ Mnathka or “flat-faced mountain” by the îyârhe Nakodabi (Stoney Nakoda). This is also the doorway into the passage and is part of the creation story.

Rights of Nature: A Reflection 

By Britney Supernault

The idea of protecting nature is new to Indigenous Peoples. No matter where you go in the world, the Indigenous Peoples of that area have held a relationship based in respect and reciprocity with the land they share life with. There is no hierarchy of whose life matters more, or who should be dominant when it comes to humans, animal people, and the land. Instead Indigenous People shared what is now seen as a radical stance in the modern anthropocene – that humans are no more or less than our animal relatives and the land, and that all should be given the same ‘rights’ to life. 

Specific to the Cree, when Creator was first bringing the idea of two-legged children to the animals, Creator said that this one (two-legged) will stumble and struggle greatly to survive. It is up to the Nôhkom ekwa Nimosôm asiniy (grandmother and grandfather rocks), muskwa (bear), atim (dog), and all other manner of plant and animal relatives to teach them how to live in the world. Within Cree belief systems, two-leggeds are very much the younger sibling and so we interact with the world based on this familial recognition of respect and gratitude. 

So with a relationship built on the pillars of recognizing our wâhkôhtowin (kinship) with the earth and all her children, it was unnecessary to think of the land as something under our protection. The way we harvest, gather, and hunt was done in the bounds of the way we were taught by our plant and animal relatives. Even Eastern tribes knew that when the land would get tired they needed to move their crops and people elsewhere — like a child who senses their parents are done playing for the day. Why would we ever need to think about protecting that which lives and breathes and has a sense of humor the same way we do? 

However, with the expansion of the western ideal of industrial revolution, capitalism, and globalization into every crevice of the Earth—where the earth is no longer a mother, but merely a playground for us to abuse in our own make-belief games—the need to protect nature is apparent. I don’t need to further explain how viewing nature as an object rather than a subject has allowed for her abuse through exploitation and resource extraction. I don’t need to paint images of mineral mines like open sores on your skin, or oil extraction like giving up pint after pint of blood because someone insists they need more and more of it. I don’t even need to bring to your attention the many animals who have begun their own demonstrations of protest by encroaching into towns and cities in search of food or by dying quietly as the last of their species. We are quite familiar with this story.

What the Rights of Nature movement aims to do is to marry the inherent Indigenous understanding of kinship with nature with the western legal system. One of the many paths to climate stability, the legal protection of waterways, mountains, and forests by recognizing them and their personhood ensures that biodiverse areas retain the same rights as you and me. This idea isn’t new– especially to Indigenous Peoples who have since time immemorial recognized nature for who she is: a living, breathing being, worthy of respect. However, in the western world of law this concept only began several decades ago (it was actually hundreds of years ago with the Whanganui Iwi and the river from which they came, for which they have been seeking legal personhood and protection since the 1870s); and it wouldn’t have any real credence until less than 2 decades ago. 

In 2008, Ecuador was the first country in the world to recognize the Rights of Nature in its national constitution. Since then, there have been a growing number of cases of Indigenous Peoples and climate activists championing and winning the rights of legal personhood for various rivers and forests around the world. In Canada, the Mutehekau Shipu (Magpie River) was the first waterway to gain recognition of personhood under law and to have legally protected rights thanks to the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and their alliance. Their work has paved the way forward for Indigenous Peoples looking to protect what has always been theirs to steward. 

In pursuit of legal personhood, there are a few common threads that tie the Nature Rights Framework together that EcoJustice has found: the incorporation of recognition of specific legal rights, a provision to protect and defend the proposed rights, and a strategy for how these rights are going to be protected. All of these commonalities point to one important facet of successful climate justice and mitigation: centering Indigenous Leadership and Rights. 

Indigenous Peoples are well aware of the land they live, hunt, and gather on. We visit nature the same way we would our Nohkum, with an offering, a listening ear for stories (lessons), a meal, medicine, and of course something to bring back with us to our own home fires. Centering Indigenous Rights means centering the rights of nature. Indigenous Peoples are the original land stewards and have an inherent connection with the land on which they practice. We can speak for the land because we are the ones who listen. We know the rights the rivers and forests and mountains have because it’s the same ones we have. We know strategies for how to protect these rights; we’ve been defending land rights through the way we interact with her in respect and reciprocity. 

My work within RAD has stretched into the world of Nature Rights as a path forward to climate change mitigation and Land Defense. As shown through the work of Innu Council of Ekuanitshit, the logical next step after having nature legally recognized as a person is pursuing the establishment of an IPCA (Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area) so that Indigenous Peoples can continue to care and steward and defend the land that is kin. While RAD builds up their network of resources, information, and programs to share in the evolving world of Climate Action, I’ve been honored to start the work of paving this path ahead for RAD as a viable option for Indigenous Nations in so-called Canada.

To read more by Britney, also known as the Cree Nomad, visit thecreenomad.com.