I came across this little photo of the ‘dancing beaver’ by accident and had to celebrate new years’ with her. The photo has no explanation, but looking at it I think that someone just took away the branch she was eating and she’s looking after it mournfully and reaching with her paws to get it back.
Doesn’t that seem about right?
Yesterday we enjoyed the super moon and started the year by wanting wondering if this young woman knows about beavers and will work them into the conversation. It seems like the ultimate ‘next step’.
Teen activist Autumn Peltier who scolded Trudeau to address UN
A year ago, Autumn found herself face-to-face with Justin Trudeau at the Assembly of First Nations’ annual winter meeting. She had been chosen to present the Canadian prime minister with a ceremonial copper water bowl to symbolise his responsibility to protect the country’s water.
But instead of being star struck, the teenager spoke her mind.
“I am very unhappy with the choices you’ve made,” she said.
As prime minister, Mr Trudeau has supported a number of pipeline projects, drawing sharp criticism from indigenous and environmental advocates. There are also 100 First Nations communities in the country that have had a water advisory in place for more than a year, a national crisis that the government has promised to fix by 2021.
“I understand that,” he said to her. “I will protect the water.”
Autumn, who lives in Wikwemikong First Nation in northern Ontario, will get an even bigger audience next spring, when she will address the United Nations General Assembly in New York for the declaration of the International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development.
Her journey to becoming an international water advocate began when she was just eight years old.
When she is not travelling the world, Autumn is a regular teenager who loves her pets, Instagram and making crafts with her friends -including bracelets she sells to raise money for a local community without clean water.But she wants her future to be anything but ordinary. After going to university and law school, she has set her sights on Canada’s top job.
“I want to be prime minister or minister of environment,” she says.
How much do we love Autumn? Quite a bit, I’d say. I can’t imagine a better voice for the water, She doesn’t exactly mention beavers but I’m sure the thing that she is focused on loves them very much indeed. I’m guessing they’d be on friendly terms. I probably would have made a better pagan than a Catholic, because it seems absolutely normal to speak about water in human terms. I sure wish she could come to the beaver festival – or Earth Day.
She’s a shoe-in for youth conservationist of the year.
Since we’re always talking about the good beavers do on the landscape, I thought you would appreciate this video of the ‘dam cam’ they’re using at Quonquont farms in Massachusetts. It’s wonderful to see everyone that uses that dam. We loved watching the activity in Martinez, but I admit thatSeptember appearance has us beat.
