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Manitoba Clean Environment Commission Testimony
The following are samples of testimony given to the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission hearings in spring of 2004 regarding the Wuskwatim Hydro Electric Project. The project, involving a partnership between the public utility (Manitoba Hydro) and Nisichawaysihk First Nation (formerly Nelson House), has been strongly opposed by many of the elders and land-based Cree and Metis hunters in the region. Aboriginal leaders from the Justice Seekers of Nelson House and from the Displaced Residents of South Indian Lake (a community previously relocated as a result of hydro flooding) gave very strong testimony against the project, samples of which are included here. The Clean Environment Commission recommended in favor of the project in fall 2004, but continued opposition and the continual delay of a community vote among Nisichawaysihk members have created serious problems for the project, the first of three new dams proposed by Manitoba Hydro. It is notable that the issue has not generated as much public attention as the similar conflict in northern Quebec.
Testimony: Peter Kulchyski
Testimony: Angus Dysart, President of the Association of Displaced Residents of South Indian Lake
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Peter Kulchyski is head of the Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba. He is co-author of the award-winning Tammarniit [Mistakes] (UBC Press), editor of Unjust Relations (Oxford UP), and co-editor of In the Words of Elders (Toronto UP), as well as numerous scholarly and popular articles. His Like the Sound of a Drum: Aboriginal Cultural Politics in Denendeh and Nunavut (UManitoba Press) will appear in fall 2005, and Kiumajuk [Talking Back] (with Frank Tester, UBC Press) will appear in winter 2006.
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