Canadian Indigenous water activist Autumn Peltier, 15, addressed hundreds of international guests at UN headquarters in Manhattan on Saturday, where she urged the global community to respect the sacredness and importance of clean water.
“I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: we can’t eat money or drink oil,” said the activist from Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island in northern Ontario.
Peltier spoke at the Global Landscapes Forum, a platform on sustainable land use founded by UN Environment and the World Bank that’s dedicated to achieving development and climate goals.
She used the speech to draw attention to the lack of clean water in numerous Indigenous communities, which she says sparked her activism.
“All across these lands, we know somewhere where someone can’t drink the water. Why so many, and why have they gone without for so long?”
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