An exploratory photo essay commissioned by Greenpeace International, observes First Nation and Métis communities along a remote, 350km north-eastern corridor in Alberta’s oil and gas-rich province.
While global media, campaigners, and NGOs have focussed on the environmental impact of oil sands and Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) oil recovery systems, they have largely overlooked the cost to First Nation and Métis traditions and their Constitutional Treaty Rights. The dramatic social upheaval caused by the omnipresent oil and gas industry in these marginalised populations is unaccounted for by successive Canadian governments.
The First Nation communities featured in the gallery are: Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation, Fort McMurray First Nation, Fort McKay First Nation.
The traditional Cree word for Canada, ‘Kanata’, means ‘clean’.
While global media, campaigners, and NGOs have focussed on the environmental impact of oil sands and Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) oil recovery systems, they have largely overlooked the cost to First Nation and Métis traditions and their Constitutional Treaty Rights. The dramatic social upheaval caused by the omnipresent oil and gas industry in these marginalised populations is unaccounted for by successive Canadian governments.
The First Nation communities featured in the gallery are: Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation, Fort McMurray First Nation, Fort McKay First Nation.
The traditional Cree word for Canada, ‘Kanata’, means ‘clean’.
All photographs by Emile Holba.
All rights reserved.