News

:

, ,

Water research group looking to publish studies on Six Nations

A water droplet creating a ripple in a body of water. The top half of the water is tinted yellow and the bottom half of the water has a blue darker tint.
Six Nations Elected Council will support its community members looking to be compensated in the First Nations Drinking Water Settlement, after not being included as an impacted First Nation. Community members who apply will be able to include a letter signed by Six Nations Chief Mark Hill that attests that Six Nations does meet the requirements of the class action settlement. Photo courtesy of Arek Socha from Pixabay.
Andrew Dow - CJKS - Ohsweken • ON | 03-11-2022
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on email
Share on print

With water issues at the forefront continuing to be a topic of concern when it comes to First Nations communities in Canada, a McMaster-led water research group has been studying water on Six Nations.

During the Oct. 25 general council meeting for SNEC, The Ohneganos project group was looking for approval from Six Nations Elected Council to publish a series of journal articles on its ongoing local research.

The Ohneganos project is a water research group that investigates Indigenous water insecurity, and looks to find solutions for those issues using an integration of western sciences and Indigenous and local knowledge. The project is being led by McMaster University Professor Dr. Dawn Martin Hill, and is focussing on two communities Indigenous communities, Six Nations of the Grand River and Lubicon Lake Band of Little Buffalo in northern Alberta.

Six Nations Elected Council are hoping to make sure that proper research and information is presented before their latest studies go to publication.

Coun. Helen Miller spoke on the research being done and her hope to ensure that the project is competent and credible.

"I'm not opposing, I think I'm raising a question of, we have so many people coming and wanting to do water that I question their level of expertise because they come and present their findings to the community, so I'm starting to question their level of expertise to be doing water studies and then reporting to the community," she said.

Coun. Nathan Wright spoke on the fact that so many different organizations are now coming to give solutions on water issues and said it might benefit SNEC to gather and track the research that is being done.

"There's been so much (research) done on water, there's been so much done and all of these studies on water over the years, and I think on ethics (committee) we talked about a long term strategy to bring in a resource or a human resource staff person to begin tracking all of this research just so we know whether or not a particular water research has already been done."

The Ohneganos group were not in attendance for the Oct. 25 council meeting but have been asked by SNEC to return before full council at a later date to present their findings and ask once again for approval to have their research journals published.

Listen to the full CJKS story below:

Download Audio