Experiencing Pikangikum

Asha Kerr-Wilson is PWRDF Youth Council Board Liaison.

Before Christmas I had the incredible opportunity to visit the First Nation of Pikangikum where PWRDF and our partners have been working to equip homes with water and wastewater systems for the last several years. As I struggled to process and write about my experience someone prompted me with:

• Tell us what you saw, what you heard.
• What did you experience of the reality of the people of Pikangikum?

In my frustration my mind immediately listed all the challenging, difficult and heartbreaking things I’d seen: 

I saw the state of poverty and the poor living conditions. Run down homes due to age and overcrowding; homes still heated by wood burning stoves; no running water and instead buckets and jugs and basins of water that had been fetched from the water stations, and sitting in corners for use for everyday activities like washing clothes and dishes and bodies.

I experienced the outrageous prices of food and other basic supplies and the isolation from other communities, and the challenges of weather for coming and going.

I saw the field of garbage with a road through it that was the landfill and a spot of discord on the peaceful landscape. I experienced the way, when asked about concerns of a changing climate, the people responded with a casual acknowledgment of the concern, but a sense that they had other things to worry about – the way they seemed to accept it as an impending reality they had no power to change.

I experienced a feeling of anxious resignation to this reality and the difficulties in overcoming it.

And I experienced the hesitancy of people to share their stories, realities, and traditions with outsiders and strangers…

Later I went back to my notes and in reviewing all of this in my head I realized there were also a lot of positives in the face of all this heartbreak:

I experienced the joy of students with a beautiful new school, the passion of the police officers and community leaders working in the community as it seeks to grow and heal some of these long-standing wounds, and the continued practice of and connection to their language and cultural heritage.

I saw the way the community was built into the surrounding forest and existed in harmony with it. As we built trust and relationship, I experienced a sampling of the stories of their continued connection to the land and water and the wildlife that lives on and in it.

I learned about the resilience and strength of a people who know this land and their place on it better than anyone and who continue to celebrate their culture, language and people despite the many hardships.

Since Phase 1 of the Pikangikum Water Project started in 2013, PWRDF and partners have retrofitted 10 homes with clean drinking water and waste water systems. Phase 2 is now well underway, with plans to complete another 10 homes.

In coming home and grappling with what I had seen and heard during my short visit, I began to understand the struggle that this community faces. It was challenging and difficult. But in the midst of it I also experienced their hope. It was the kind of hope that keeps people going in times of difficulty. The kind of hope that drives people to make change. Whether it’s the people living in the community, or those of us outside of it, as we collectively work for a healthier world.