Delegates from Australia and New Zealand were in Greater Sudbury this week to take part in the Indigenous Land Symposium at Science North. Jacqueline Te Mataara Lorangi from New Zealand said it was a good chance for “everybody (to) come together and share and just meet other like-minded people. “We are on the same path. We do have the same mindset. We do have the same heart and soul and spirit.” Community representatives shared conversations around governance, hoping to inspire one another. “Our Indigenous voice is real at home,” said Te Mataara Lorangi. “There are a few little things politically, but if we just focus on the positive things and we make sure that everything is inclusive and our voice is the strongest and we are the decision makers when it comes to our land and what happens on our lands.” Common challenges Tolita Davis-Angeles from Australia said there are struggles common to Indigenous peoples in both their nations. “The way that the First Nations people of Canada have been through the fight, the journey, walking the journey that we’re just beginning,” Davis-Angeles said. “We’ve been battling for our lands over in Australia for a long time and ... we don’t have (a) treaty.” For her, being part of the symposia has been mind-blowing. “Being able to hear stories of success, beyond the hardships over here, just gives us more hope as well,” Davis-Angeles said. “Just to keep pushing and we will find a way -- and we’ll walk together.” Land stewardship Land stewardship was also a topic of interest for many attendees. “Although we are very, very different, the one thing that we all have in common as First Nations people is our care for country,” Davis-Angeles said. “It is something that we are born to do. We must do. And, above all odds, no matter the trauma that we’ve been through, no matter what, where we’ve been displaced, what country we’re actually in, it might not be our own country. We still have to look after that, you know, because it’s Mother Earth.” “I think it’s a thread through the symposium that Indigenous communities are connected around the world,” said another attendee, Leigh Fox. “(We have) a lot of shared values and shared practices around forest stewardship, water management and taking care of the land.” In Ottawa next year Fox said they are hoping to expand even more in the future and to hear stories from more Indigenous communities across the globe at the next symposium in Ottawa next year. Te Mataara Lorangi said even though she is hundreds of kilometres away, the fire made her feel at home. “Home, we have a saying … ‘keeping the home fires burning.’ So it really resonates with me and my heart for home and has been a home just sitting out here every day in the snow. “This is a magical winter land,” Davis-Angeles added. However, she said she isn’t even sure how to describe the cold to her family.
