Hundreds of people kept their distance and wore masks while showing their support and solidarity for a climate action rally organized by youth with Climate Strike Halifax on Friday.
“As a Cree person, I have an intimate connection to my homelands, but as a visitor here in Miꞌkmaꞌki, I must be a good guest,” Naomi Bird from the Montreal Lake Cree Nation told the crowd.
“It would be rude to benefit from living on this land and not fight to protect it. I would be a bad guest by not acknowledging and uplifting my host, the Mi’kmaq nation,”
Bird, along with other fellow organizers, were not only raising their voices in calls for climate action but also standing united in their support for the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) community.
“The forefront of this rally is definitely Indigenous sovereignty, Black Lives Matter, racial justice because that does couple hand in hand with climate justice as well,” said Emma Goulden, an 18-year-old member of Climate Strike Halifax.
Last September, thousands of people marched through the streets of Halifax as part of climate strikes happening around the world.
This year, youth organizers are urging the public to not become complacent in pressuring government officials to sideline corporate profit and focus on building a resilient economy that is rooted in equity for all.
The rally was held as part of the #wearenotgoingback campaign that also calls for the defunding of police services and the reallocation of those funds to community and social services.
Organizers called on the crowd to stand with them in solidarity with Mi’kmaq treaty defenders and support for the Sipekne’katik First Nation launching their own-self managed fishery.
“With all the harmful industry projects that are being placed on our sacred territories here, and our treaties that are being broken, that is definitely connected to the land and mother earth, (and) is a big part of climate justice,” said Kyra Gilbert, a water protector and land defender from Annapolis Valley First Nation.
One of the speakers, Julia Sampson, also spoke about her experience with a lack of climate change curriculum in public school and the negative impact that carries for youth.
“The only thing we are required to learn is that climate is different than weather, and in most of my science classes that’s all I learned. That meant that when I started striking and educating myself on the climate crisis, I developed a lot of climate anxiety due to an overwhelming amount of doomful climate science and government inaction,” Sampson said.
Rally organizers spoke of the ongoing need to hold inclusive spaces where conversations about global issues, like climate change and racial justice, can be discussed.
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