Climate Change and Sustainability Learning

“This project for me represents the true spirit and intent of Treaty,” Crystal Lameman, Treaty Coordinator for Amisk Sakahikan Nehiyaw, told Ricochet by phone. “‘As long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the rivers flow’ — this was what guided my renewable energy inquiry and that of defining Indigenous economic, food and energy sovereignty.”

With the words “as long as the sun shines” in mind, Lameman, Amisk Sakahikan Nehiyaw, and the local environmental group Keepers of the Athabasca initially set out to build a much smaller six-kilowatt solar energy system. A grant from the provincial government’s Alberta Indigenous Solar Program allowed the First Nation to quadruple the project’s energy output capacity.

Solar panels power (underfunded) schools:

An array of solar panels now sit on the roof of Amisk Sakahikan Nehiyaw’s community school. They will help the school reduce its energy costs, which could free up money for education programs. Indigenous education has received considerably less money than non-Indigenous education in Canada. In an interview with a former TD economist last year, the CBC reported that First Nations’ schools received an estimated 30 per cent less money from the federal government than the provinces provide for non-Indigenous schools under their jurisdiction.

Lameman said her elders and community were supportive of the solar project from the start and several young men and women took part in an unpaid training session to learn how to install the system. The on-reserve population of Amisk Sakahikan Nehiyaw is only 400 people.

“I believe that young people are really wanting to change the language and change the landscape of the current economy,” Lameman said. “It is a perfect example of how First Nations people want to be engaged in the economy, but that they want to do it in a sustainable way.”