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The Niibi Center aims to protect and preserve Anishinaabe culture
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Niibi Center Updates and Call for Interviews
Autumn is a rich time here in northern Minnesota, from the vibrant colors of the fast fading trees to nourishing cultural practices like fishing and collecting/processing manoomin. It is a time to enjoy the harvest season by putting up the garden and giving gratitude for the earth’s generosity. Here at the Niibi Center, we wanted to take a moment and reflect back on some of the work we have done this year, as well as to invite and engage the community in our current projects and future work.
MN Bar Association: Wild Rice Goes to Court as the Rights of Nature Movement Hits Minnesota
While it is exciting that the mainstream legal world is beginning to take notice of the rights of nature movement, this particular case of manoomin vs. the MN DNR was thrown out in the tribal appellate court level (the article was written before the decision). The tribal court ruled that they did not have the jurisdiction in the case, which was a disheartening turn in the White Earth tribe’s push to legally protect manoomin (wild rice) which began with legislation in 2018.
Spotlight on the Historical Trauma Healing Program
The Niibi Center’s Historical Trauma Healing program focuses on preserving historical information/records, sharing stories around the effects of boarding school trauma, forced removal and other generational and current manifestations of colonization, and taking steps to help individuals and the community heal from the effects of this trauma.
Updates on Line 3 Damage from Waadookawaad Amikwag – Friends of the Beaver
Many environmental activists, scientists, water protectors and Tribes warned about the possible damage that Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline could wreak on the delicate watersheds and ecosystems of northern Minnesota. Line 3 traversed over 300 miles across the state and ran pipeline through and under at least 22 rivers and dozens of wetlands. In the process of construction, Enbridge had numerous frack-outs and aquifer breaches, only a handful of which have been reported to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and other environmental protection groups.
Protecting Manoomin through Anishinaabe Law
Rights of nature is a movement that seeks to give non-human relatives legal status as persons, and has gotten some traction around the world, as well as here in Minnesota. The White Earth Nation voted to give manoomin (wild rice) rights in 2019, in order to help protect wild rice and the habitats in which it grows. This legal standing is important due to manoomin’s status as not only an integral food source for Ojibwe and non-Native people in Minnesota, but most crucially because of the role manoomin plays at the center of Anishinaabe prophecy, spirituality and culture.
Food & Environment Reporting Network: The Future of Wild Rice May Depend on an Unlikely Alliance
Hoping to halt the decline of the sacred plant in northern lakes, the Ojibwe partnered with scientists who represent a historical nemesis.