Ontario Native Women's Association Mother Earth Strategy
Ontario Native Women's Association
(
Non-governmental organization (NGO)
)
#SDGAction50733
Description
ONWA’s membership resolved that ONWA be leaders in the protection of ME and continue to pursue and advocate for the rights of ME pursuant to the Declaration of the Rights of ME so that we may fulfill our obligation to maintain harmony and balance for Seven Generations to come. Through our 2021-31 Strategic Picture, ONWA is committed to developing an internal and external ME Strategy that reflects Indigenous women’s responsibilities, traditional ecological knowledge, and practices with measurable impacts, acknowledging our ancestors, future generations, and all our relations. The development of our Strategy aligns with our membership’s resolutions and our ongoing support of local grassroots level activities. Our Water Commission Toolkit created in 2014 to support local water protectors in their advocacy is an example of this work.
ONWA is developing the ME Strategy with feedback from our membership and Indigenous women and girls across Ontario and through engagement with national and international water and land protectors. We understand that to be a national and international leader, and to make real systemic change for Indigenous women, we will always begin with land, water, and ceremony. In doing so, we will demonstrate the strength of our culture and continue the healing and wellness that ceremony and land and water-based practices have brought to Indigenous women for thousands of years.
The ME Strategy will honour our traditional and sacred teachings from Mother Earth and guide us in the protection of the natural environment through ceremony, knowledge mobilization, and traditional practices. Water and land-based healing and generational knowledge transfer have been the traditional and inherent roles and responsibilities of Indigenous women since time immemorial. The ME Strategy intends to support Indigenous women and girls through capacity building, systemic change, advocacy, and through the creation of safe spaces for land-based, trauma informed, and culturally safe healing practices. ONWA will strive to become a Centre of Excellence in the work to protect the environment and address climate change. We will model the change we want to see and build capacity for others (membership, youth, partners) to do the same. Our work will continue to acknowledge the leadership of all Indigenous women land- and water-protectors who have been at the forefront of action in protecting Mother Earth, including the women of Grassy Narrows (who spoke previously at the UN in 2016) who have been working to protect the waterways on their traditional lands and home community despite a lack of access to clean, healthy water.
The ME Strategy acknowledges Indigenous women across the lifecycle have shared responsibility to protect, support, and care for the natural environment and all our non-human relations. This perspective is foundational to our future as Indigenous peoples and a central part of healing from the impacts of colonization and intergenerational trauma. As Indigenous women, we will use our traditional teachings and wisdom to heal the harms against Mother Earth. Indigenous women understand their responsibility to protect the air, land, and water.
ONWA’s Mother Earth Strategy directly contributes to accelerating SDGs 5, 6, and 15.
The climate crisis is impacting the health, safety, security, and ways of life of Indigenous communities, while also deepening existing conditions of inequality for Indigenous women, their families, and communities. With 90% of disasters now classified as climate or weather related, Indigenous communities and their territories face heightened risks related to the safety and sustainability of their lands and water systems. As stewards of their lands and waterways, Indigenous women are at the forefront of action defending their territories from irreversible harm. The traditional knowledge and cultural values Indigenous women hold are key to the protection and sustainability of the natural environment for all future generations in all communities. With this dire context in mind, Indigenous women as water carriers must have the safety to fulfil their obligation to ensure that the land and water are clean, accessible, unpolluted, and continues to fulfill its spiritual roles for our communities, grandchildren, and future generations.
ONWA’s ME Strategy will support several initiatives to reclaim Indigenous women’s access to traditional practices throughout their healing journey. The ME Strategy will provide Indigenous women and girls the ability to reconnect with their culture and Mother Earth, and to reclaim their inherent cultural roles and their rightful place as leaders within the community. Substantive and meaningful solutions to address access to clean water and a healthy environment cannot be put forward until the systemic issues that impact Indigenous women, girls, and their communities are understood, addressed, and remedied. Doing the work to develop our ME Strategy will allow for Indigenous women and girls to gather and heal as a collective by leveraging cultural practices and generational knowledge transfer. Through the ME Strategy, we will build Indigenous women’s capacity by providing access to cultural and healing activities that not only support their healing but help them to share and teach their children and grandchildren. Indigenous women are the leaders in their families and in leading their families to wellness through the protection of Mother Earth, the health and wellbeing of Indigenous women and their communities will improve as a whole.
Indigenous women who take up the role of land, water, or environmental defenders are well versed in establishing and practicing ongoing tactics and strategies to protect their children, families, and communities from the impacts of global climate change. The facilitation of knowledge-sharing between Indigenous women to strengthen global and local solidarity between Indigenous women in all countries must be protected. Through the updating of our Water Commission Toolkit as part of ME Strategy development, we expect that current and future generations of water protectors will be supported in the ongoing resistance and remediation of climate change and environmental degradation. The knowledge and expertise of Indigenous women and girls is vast, and through their positions as experts of traditional knowledge, our ME will be protected.
ONWA's membership consists of 12 Chapters (incorporated Indigenous women’s organizations providing frontline services) and 21 Councils (grassroots groups of Indigenous women supporting community development models), representative of First Nations, Inuit, Metis, and non-status Indigenous women across Ontario.
• ONWA – About Us, provides an outline of our values, strategic issues model, organizational structure, and 2021-2031 Strategic Picture: https://www.onwa.ca/about
• ONWA – Full Moon Ceremony, shares our cultural teachings and practices with videos: https://www.onwa.ca/about
• ONWA Water Commission Toolkit (2014): https://www.onwa.ca/_files/ugd/4eaa9c_cbe510471ad44aebbcfb4f5451524cab…
SDGS & Targets
Goal 5
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
5.1
End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
5.1.1
Whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non‑discrimination on the basis of sex
5.2
5.2.1
Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by form of violence and by age
5.2.2
Proportion of women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to sexual violence by persons other than an intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by age and place of occurrence
5.3
5.3.1
Proportion of women aged 20-24 years who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18
5.3.2
Proportion of girls and women aged 15-49 years who have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting, by age
5.4
Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
5.4.1
Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location
5.5
Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life
5.5.1
Proportion of seats held by women in (a) national parliaments and (b) local governments
5.5.2
Proportion of women in managerial positions
5.6
Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
5.6.1
Proportion of women aged 15-49 years who make their own informed decisions regarding sexual relations, contraceptive use and reproductive health care
5.6.2
Number of countries with laws and regulations that guarantee full and equal access to women and men aged 15 years and older to sexual and reproductive health care, information and education
5.a
Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
5.a.1
(a) Proportion of total agricultural population with ownership or secure rights over agricultural land, by sex; and (b) share of women among owners or rights-bearers of agricultural land, by type of tenure
5.a.2
Proportion of countries where the legal framework (including customary law) guarantees women’s equal rights to land ownership and/or control
5.b
5.b.1
Proportion of individuals who own a mobile telephone, by sex
5.c
Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels
5.c.1
Proportion of countries with systems to track and make public allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment
Goal 6
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
6.1
By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all
6.1.1
Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services
6.2
By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations
6.2.1
Proportion of population using (a) safely managed sanitation services and (b) a hand-washing facility with soap and water
6.3
By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally
6.3.1
Proportion of domestic and industrial wastewater flows safely treated
6.3.2
Proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality
6.4
6.4.1
Change in water-use efficiency over time
6.4.2
Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources
6.5
By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate
6.5.1
Degree of integrated water resources management
6.5.2
Proportion of transboundary basin area with an operational arrangement for water cooperation
6.6
6.6.1
Change in the extent of water-related ecosystems over time
6.a
6.a.1
Amount of water- and sanitation-related official development assistance that is part of a government-coordinated spending plan
6.b
Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management
6.b.1
Proportion of local administrative units with established and operational policies and procedures for participation of local communities in water and sanitation management
Goal 15
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
15.1
By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements
15.1.1
15.1.2
15.2
By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally
15.2.1
15.3
By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world
15.3.1
15.4
By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development
15.4.1
15.4.2
15.5
Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species
15.5.1
15.6
Promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and promote appropriate access to such resources, as internationally agreed
15.6.1
15.7
Take urgent action to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna and address both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products
15.7.1
15.8
By 2020, introduce measures to prevent the introduction and significantly reduce the impact of invasive alien species on land and water ecosystems and control or eradicate the priority species
15.8.1
15.9
By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts
15.9.1
(a) Number of countries that have established national targets in accordance with or similar to Aichi Biodiversity Target 2 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 in their national biodiversity strategy and action plans and the progress reported towards these targets; and (b) integration of biodiversity into national accounting and reporting systems, defined as implementation of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
15.a
Mobilize and significantly increase financial resources from all sources to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ecosystems
15.a.1
(a) Official development assistance on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; and (b) revenue generated and finance mobilized from biodiversity-relevant economic instruments
15.b
Mobilize significant resources from all sources and at all levels to finance sustainable forest management and provide adequate incentives to developing countries to advance such management, including for conservation and reforestation
15.b.1
(a) Official development assistance on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; and (b) revenue generated and finance mobilized from biodiversity-relevant economic instruments
15.c
Enhance global support for efforts to combat poaching and trafficking of protected species, including by increasing the capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities
15.c.1
SDG 14 targets covered
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Deliverables & Timeline
Resources mobilized
Partnership Progress
Feedback
Action Network
Share
Timeline
Entity
Region
- North America
Other beneficiaries
ONWA’s Mother Earth Strategy is multi-pronged and wide-reaching with both internal and external initiatives and activities. The ME Strategy will directly benefit (internally) ONWA staff, membership and the Indigenous women and communities supported through ONWA’s direct services and membership-delivered services and supports. Externally, broader Indigenous communities, other organizations and the public both nationally and internationally will benefit from ONWA’s increased advocacy, knowledge-sharing, greening-efforts, and capacity building.
More information
Countries
Contact Information
Cora, Executive Director