{"id":807,"date":"2026-01-13T15:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hkn.b42.myftpupload.com\/?p=807"},"modified":"2026-01-13T15:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:54:15","slug":"protecting-land-and-water-as-treaty-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/?p=807","title":{"rendered":"Protecting land and water as treaty partners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On January 4, 24 people participated in a ceremony led by three grassrooted traditional Mi\u2019kmaq grandmothers\u2014 Marilyn Francis, Marian Nicholas and Darlene Gilbert.<br>The ceremony included a sacred fire, songs and prayers for the protection of the land, a water ceremony that included singing to the roaring Ingram River, and prayers of protection for all the waters that give us life.<br>Participants expressed their love for the Ingram River Wilderness Area (IRWA) and their heartbreak over the proposed high-production forestry, (aka perpetual clear-cutting and spraying) to take place there.<br>IRWA is home to the oldest forests in Nova Scotia, is a critical corridor for the endangered Mainland Moose, a watershed for St. Margaret\u2019s Bay, and home to 16 other species at risk and 73 species of conservation concern.<br>Clear-cutting threatens the survival of the moose, those other fragile and endangered species,<br>our watershed, and the health of those forests.<br>Our community has lobbied for this area to be protected. The salmon used to populate St. Margaret&#8217;s Bay. Sadly, logging activity by Bowater Mersey impacted the Ingram River, and the salmon stopped spawning.<br>Participants in the ceremony expressed their joy that the salmon have returned to spawn in the river, due to the stewardship of the St. Margaret&#8217;s Bay Stewardship Association.<br>The ceremony fortified our commitment to protecting IRWA. It was a full-circle moment as the<br>Mi\u2019kmaq grandmothers returned here, as descendants of the people who fished in the Ingram<br>River, and paddled it to access St. Margaret\u2019s Bay, and for whom IRWA was traditional hunting<br>grounds.<br>The ceremony threaded participants together as treaty partners\u2014settlers standing with the Mi\u2019kmaq\u2014to safeguard our common future by protecting the water and land that gives us life.<br>To join us, email ingramactiongroup@gmail.com.<br><em><strong>Lesley Hartman<br>Ingram Action Group<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 4, 24 people participated in a ceremony led by three grassrooted traditional Mi\u2019kmaq grandmothers\u2014 Marilyn Francis, Marian Nicholas and Darlene Gilbert.The ceremony included a sacred fire, songs and prayers for the protection of the land, a water ceremony that included singing to the roaring Ingram River, and prayers of protection for all the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[200,201,202,203],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","tag-ingram-river-wilderness-area","tag-irwa","tag-mikmaq-2","tag-st-margarets-bay-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/independent-white-fish.learmonthmarketing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}