The St. Peter’s Indian Band (now Peguis First Nation) was forcibly removed from their original lands at Netley-Libau Marsh beginning in 1908, after an illegal surrender vote took place. Since then, the health of the area that was once the Peguis’s home has declined due to intense annual flooding and ice jams; the appearance of invasive species such as purple loosestrife, zebra mussels, and carp; as well as a nitrogen and phosphorus overload that causes deadly algae blooms in Lake Winnipeg.

Join Naomi Ratte, one of the CCA’s 2022 Indigenous-led design fellows as she shares her research on Netley-Libau Marsh, its significance to her community, and a dream of its potential Indigenous-led rehabilitation. She asks: “Instead of designers imposing ideas, perspectives, and solutions on a landscape, what if we listen to what the land itself is trying to reveal to us?” What are the stories that have been told, and what stories have yet to be revealed? Ratte will explore how her research prioritizes language and storytelling to describe ways of repairing the world around us.

Naomi Ratte is a consultant and landscape architecture intern with NVision Insight Group Inc. She supports projects related to territorial park design, interpretive planning, and traditional knowledge studies, including interviews with community knowledge holders, in the Canadian Arctic. Her Master of Landscape Architecture work focused on exploring past narratives and imagined ways to form new stories and connections in her community’s original territory at the mouth of the Red River, near Selkirk, Manitoba.

To join the virtual event, click here.

Questions in French will be welcome.