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In this episode, Heather Castleden and Melissa Quesnelle talk with Melina Laboucan-Massimo about activism, Indigenous resurgence, and land defense, all based in love and care for land and people. Attending her first blockade at age 7, Melina describes her work not so much as protesting, but as her inheritance. Her work with energy justice and energy transition is a sacred responsibility she has inherited to care for Mother Earth. Speaking about her home community in Little Buffalo, which is impacted by one of the largest industrial projects in the world, Melina talks about the simplicity of planetary health meaning clean water, air, and lands. We hear about how art can never be excluded from Indigenous cultures, activism, or movement spaces, and how we are seeing a resurgence of Indigenous governance where decision making power is shared with all genders. Respect for the feminine, in whatever way that shows up in any body, is being rebalanced.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo is Lubicon Cree from Northern Alberta. She is the Founder of Sacred Earth Solar and Co-Founder and Senior Director at Indigenous Climate Action. Melina is the inaugural fellow at the David Suzuki Foundation where her research focused on Climate Change, Indigenous Knowledge and Renewable Energy. She is the host of a TV docu-series “Power to the People,” which profiles renewable energy in Indigenous communities across the country. Melina holds a master’s degree in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria with a focus on Renewable Energy.
This podcast is created by the Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health at the University of Victoria, with production from Cited Media. We are supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Researchand the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. You can find us at https://indigenousplanetaryhealth.ca/
