Listening to the Elders as Keepers of the Water (expanded version)

• Main Author: D'Souza, R.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Primus Books 2017
• Subjects: Keepers of the water; contracts and covenants; relations to nature and state; indigenous knowledge; First Nations
• Online Access: https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/q5w09/listening-to-the-elders-as-keepers-of-the-water-expanded-version

This chapter is an expanded version of an earlier publication. It offers an international perspective of the Keepers of the Water gathering that occurred in northern Manitoba, where Elders reiterate what indigenous people have always said, 'no one can own land or water or forests' and that we all have a covenant with nature that overrides the treaties with colonial settlers. Composed of First Nations, Mèti, and Innuit peoples, environmental groups, concerned citizens, and communities working for the protection of air, water, and land, the Keepers are the grassroots communities who struggle between the covenant with nature and state. The chapter examines the conceptual underpinnings of the two types of covenants.