Terry Ann Sappier on protecting Miramichi Lake and the heart of the land [video]

Terry Ann Sappier, Wolastoqi land defender, spoke on her efforts to protect Miramichi Lake and the heart of the land on Tuesday, February 28. The talk was part of St. Thomas University’s Environmental Praxis Lecture Series — an online interdisciplinary lecture series with thinkers and activists on today’s pressing environmental issues. The talks are open to the public.

The talk is now available for viewing here –

Wolastoqey grandmothers and mothers have opposed the eradication program to eliminate the smallmouth bass population with rotenone in Miramichi Lake, located on unceded Wolastoqey territory, in between the communities of Deersdale and Napadogan.

A consortium including the Atlantic Salmon Federation, the Miramichi Salmon Conservation Centre, the New Brunswick Salmon Council, Anqotum Resource Management, the Miramichi Water Management Committee, the NB Wildlife Management Committee and the Northshore Micmac District Council argue the smallmouth bass population is a threat to the Atlantic salmon population that spawns in the headwaters of the Miramichi Watershed. Wolastoqey grandmothers and mothers have tried to stop what they say is the poisoning of Miramichi Lake and argue that they were not properly consulted on the plans.

For more information, read Terry Ann Sappier’s piece, “We are here for the heart of the land,” published by the NB Media Co-op.

Sappier is a writer and land defender from the community of Neqotkuk with a long history of advocacy for her people and nation in conflicts with corporations, industry, and non-Indigenous government bodies. She was a contributor to Letters from the Future: How New Brunswickers Confronted Climate Change and Redefined Progress (Chapel Street Editions, 2021), and is a member of the board at Connecting to the Land.

Giuliana Grillo de Lambarri covered the talk for the St. Thomas University student newspaper, The Aquinian.

“My children deserve to have their inheritance. My grandchildren deserve that as well and the next seven generations,” said Sappier as quoted in The Aquinian.

The Environmental Praxis Lecture Series is supported by the NB Media Co-op (publisher of the talks) and RAVEN.

For more information, contact Tracy at tglynn@stu.ca.