THUNDER BAY - Marches and demonstrations are taking place across the country and the world to protest against pipeline projects and local voices will be joining the frontlines from afar.
Christi Belcourt and Isaac Murdoch, environmentalists and artists with the Onaman Collective, hosted a community art project on Wednesday in Thunder Bay called Uprising.
“I think what most people in this region don’t really fully grasp is how many pipelines crisscross North America,” Belcourt said. “There’s 4.3 million miles of pipelines that crisscross North America. That is enough to circle the earth several times.”
Dozens of people gathered at the Baggage Arts Building to craft banners and prints to be used in protests and marches at several major pipeline projects, including the Trans Mountain Pipeline and Line 3.
Even though these projects may not seem like a concern for people in Northwestern Ontario, Belcourt said their impact is actually closer than it appears.
According to Belcourt, Line 3 travels directly from the tar sands in Alberta and connects to an aging pipeline 15 years past its shelf life near Duluth, Minn. If that line was to fail, the effects could be felt across the Great Lakes.
“The currents are going to travel into Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron,” she said. “So that Line 3, even though it sounds very far away, it actually could impact the Great Lakes, including Lake Superior and including Thunder Bay.”
The goal on Wednesday was to create 500 prints with images created by Belcourt and Murdoch. Lak Williams was one of the many people lending a hand and she said she wanted to help because pipelines impact everyone.
“If this pipeline goes through, it will affect Lake Superior, Lake Huron,” she said. “It’s right there. It will affect everybody. It takes a lot of people to make a big change that needs to happen. It starts from the bottom up.”
Williams added that she wanted to take her time with the painting, because she knows how significant it is to be contributing to frontline protests, giving the people of Thunder Bay a voice in a national and global movement.
And she wasn’t alone. Joining Williams were dozens of young people making prints and painting banners.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Williams said. “It’s really great to see all these children and youth here and just their excitement to be a part of this.”
Belcourt added that it is heartbreaking to hear young people and students say they are not hopeful for the future and she thinks we need to do more to turn that outlook around.
“I think young people really know what’s happening with the earth, with pollution,” she said. “This is their earth that they are inheriting. It is incumbent upon us to listen to their wants and their desires and their needs. They deserve to have a clean earth.”
Work by Belcourt and Murdoch can be seen at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery during their show Uprising: The Power of Mother Earth until Nov. 25, 2018.
