The sounds of drums and voices rose above the noise of downtown traffic. On June 15, under a clear sky streaked with prairie sun, people gathered outside Calgary City Hall, some with hand-painted signs, some with children in tow, others wrapped in ribbon skirts and keffiyehs.
Within a larger designated protest space filled with diverse groups, the Hands Off Our Water rally brought together Indigenous peoples from Treaty 7 territory, grassroots organizers, migrant justice activists and environmental advocates in a powerful display of resistance. Organized by the Calgary Climate Hub in partnership with Keepers of the Water, Indigenous Climate Action, Piikani Nation members, Migrante Alberta, Jubilee, Justice for Palestinians, CUPE and others, the collaborative event mobilized a coalition as interconnected and intersectional as the crisis at hand.
Diplomacy in the mountains, resistance in the city
Eighty-six kilometers away in Kananaskis, secluded behind security checkpoints and RCMP roadblocks, the annual G7 summit was underway. Situated in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta and home to diverse First Nations communities (such as the Blackfoot Confederacy Nations, the Stoney Nakoda Nations and the Tsuut’ina First Nation), the scenic mountain resort town served as a fortress for the political leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries as they gathered to discuss global economic priorities.
For many watching from beyond the barricades, however, this year’s G7 felt disconnected from the urgent realities facing communities on the ground. Amid this spectacle of diplomacy, the Hands Off Our Water rally offered a stark counterpoint, alongside other contingencies which included demonstrators calling out ongoing human rights violations and war crimes being committed in Tigray, Palestine and Kashmir.
Diverse groups and local community members in Calgary come together to make their voices heard while the G7 summit is in full swing.
“It was really cool that there were multiple issues being experienced across the world and that we were all here to say something about it. People were willing to show up for themselves [and] their communities. This wasn’t a standalone event [but] a continuation of a larger movement,” says Talynn English, program manager at the Calgary Climate Hub.
Hands off our water!
Speakers on the steps of Calgary’s municipal plaza called attention to long-standing water degradation, the legacy of extractive industry and the continued denial of Indigenous communities’ right to clean, safe and self-governed water. From contaminated wells to delayed boil-water advisories, the systemic failure to empower Indigenous communities persists. And now, with legislation like Bill C-5 threatening to sideline environmental assessments and constitutionally enshrined Indigenous rights, many fear things could get worse by putting public health and safety at risk.
“There was a speaker from Piikani Nation who was speaking about water contamination and the impacts of fast-tracking fossil fuel projects and how these threaten our water systems,” explains Talynn, referring to the sweeping powers Bill C-5 would grant federal cabinet to designate infrastructure projects in the ‘national interest’ and override the consultation processes meant to guarantee Indigenous sovereignty and protect ecological health.
Indigenous community members and allies raise banners calling for Indigenous sovereignty, climate justice and the protection of water and land.
Speakers went on to draw a direct link between international neglect and local harm. Decisions made in places like Kananaskis ripple outward, through weakened protections and safeguards imposed by legislation like Bill C-5, through underfunded infrastructure in Indigenous communities and through a failure to confront the underlying causes of the climate crisis that stem from colonialism and capitalism.
As much as the rally was a critique of government and corporate failure, however, it was also a call to recognize and affirm Indigenous leadership that has long offered models of care, stewardship and resistance.
The theme of Indigenous water governance, central to the rally’s message, was first brought forward to the Calgary Hub by the Chief Steering Committee (CSC), an Alberta-based group voicing concerns about Canada's proposed clean water legislation for First Nations communities. Though the CSC had to step back due to unforeseen circumstances, the rally’s organizers proceeded with this theme with guidance from other Indigenous partners committed to the same vision.
“One thing that some of the speakers [talked] about was around looking to Indigenous climate leadership as climate leadership, period,” Talynn recalls, noting how the theme echoed throughout the rally both in word and spirit. “Indigenous communities have always been at the forefront of climate solutions, so looking to these knowledges within academia, within political institutions, within nonprofit organizations has to be a priority.”
You can read Indigenous Climate Action’s recent report, Landback is climate policy, that underscores the importance of reconnection to the land, culture and language in climate policy.
Protecting what sustains us all
As the crowds thinned and the drums fell quiet, one thing lingered in the air: a sense of shared responsibility. Not just to bear witness, but to act, speak up and protect what sustains us all, because it is something that simply cannot be sacrificed for pipelines, profit or political convenience.
“This [coalition effort] was an opportunity for us to continue envisioning ways out of these systems. It was also an opportunity for organizers who are non-Indigenous to really focus our work on Indigenous determination and governance,” Talynn reflects finally. For her, the importance of listening to Indigenous leaders and community members without assuming you know anything, as well as being accountable to your words and actions, precedes all else when organizing collaboratively.
An attendee of the rally holds up a hand-painted sign that says “Protect our waters.”
At the end of the day, that’s what Hands Off Our Water was about: not just awareness, but accountability. The kind that goes beyond summit talking points or press releases. The kind that acknowledges harm and starts shifting power away from empty rhetoric, toward land-backed leadership.
Because water must never be a bargaining chip at the negotiating table of global elites; it is life itself, and there can be no justice without protecting it. The duty to do so falls upon us all.
Follow and support the Indigenous-led water conservation efforts of Keepers of the Water, Indigenous Climate Action and the Piikani Nation.
Browse through Indigenous educational and environmental resources by Keepers of the Water.