Water Connects Us

 By Andrea Dsouza, 2nd year MDP student 

Hello everyone. This is my second update on my placement with the Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute (AAI) located in White Earth, Minnesota.

Initially, our project focused on developing a collaborative agriculture enterprise based on good land stewardship and cultural survival between the Amish, Somali and Indigenous communities in Northern Minnesota. However, over time our project shifted towards researching and documenting the impacts of industrial agriculture practices in the region.

Our project focussed on understanding water use, water regulation and what frameworks existed to protect water rights for Indigenous communities in the United States of America. Similar to Indigenous communities in Canada, the waters of Minnesota are considered sacred to Anishinaabe communities. It is this spiritual and sacred relationship to the water that drives the White Earth Community and AAI’S commitment to protect its waterways and to fight against practices that promote deforestation, excessive drawing on aquifers and the poisoning of drinking water sources with run-offs from pesticides that cause adverse health impacts on local peoples. 

East Round Lake, Minnesota

In our Indigenous health class last year, we learnt about the social determinants of health and learned to draw out the proximal, distal and intermediate determinants of health. In thinking about White Earth, I thought about how important it is to identify the core causes of harm and to focus there as well as on mediating negative impacts in communities. As a highly relational person, I built relationships with a diverse group of individuals during my time in White Earth. During one conversation with a community member, it dawned on me how communities have to build or find expertise in various areas (legal, scientific, historical etc.) to tackle the negative impacts brought by the actions of non-Indigenous outsiders. The burden on these communities is significant given the threats against their land, culture and self-determination, making good allyship even more necessary.

I am grateful to have learned and grown in this project alongside other students from the University of Minnesota's MDP Program. Their knowledge and perspective on Indigenous rights in the USA bridged an essential gap in my understanding. This project has given me confidence in myself and my abilities as a development practitioner in an international context! I am grateful to the MDP program for helping me secure this placement.