How can it be that some indigenous communities are still and always deprived of something as essential and vital as drinking water?
This is the simple and deeply disturbing question at the root of The source of a failurean enlightening documentary presented next Saturday as part of Doc humanityon ICI Télé.
Think about it. Or rather no, since we don’t even think about it. For almost all of us, this goes without saying. Water, we consume it mechanically, upon waking, in the shower, to brush our teeth or to prepare coffee. Day after day. This is not the case for many natives in the country who still live in almost medieval conditions.
A subject unfortunately far from new, brought here by Radio-Canada journalist Nassima Way, who nevertheless takes a fresh and no less critical look. Born in Algiers to Moroccan parents, raised in France, the journalist has lived in Canada for 20 years, in Calgary, to be precise. And ever since she set foot here, Indigenous issues have fascinated her. “The culture, the living conditions”, specifies in an interview the one who also has Berber origins.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
A scene from the documentary
“For me, it’s incomprehensible,” she explains in her soft voice, which also inhabits the entire report, produced by Jessica L’Heureux. Canada is a modern country, after all. How can we have people asking for access to drinking water here? The only time I heard that was when I was on vacation in Algeria! »
Is it an infrastructure problem? Piping? In one of the richest countries in the world, possessing 20% of fresh water reserves in addition? The journalist wanted to know, and therefore leaves, during the 40 minutes of the documentary, in search of the sources (no pun intended) of the problem.
“Denouncing injustice”
We see her going to meet personalities from different communities (including one just 10 minutes from downtown Calgary, which nevertheless lacks running drinking water), interviewing a university researcher, discussing with an Innu lawyer specializing in indigenous peoples, even meeting the former Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Marc Miller, in Ottawa. You have to hear him talk about the “colonial myth” and its “harmful effects on indigenous communities”.
The surprise of the journalist – and especially her emotions – is also palpable. “There are mothers who have never bathed their children! »
That’s a bit like our role as a journalist: to denounce injustices. When you see it, and this one comes from so far away, it arouses emotions. But how did we get here? We have to go back: there were decades of neglect, decades of ignoring the problem, decades of turning a blind eye.
Nassima Way, journalist at Radio-Canada
Because according to her research, and several indigenous people interviewed, it is very clear: “Their impression, she says, is that the hope of the public authorities at the time was that these people would leave their communities to to live in cities. “What era, exactly? “Until 2000…”
“And I hope people will understand: it’s not them [les autochtones] who created this. […] In terms of the treaties, we made them promises that were not kept. »
She dares to ask this very harsh question: by depriving them of such a basic resource, “have we doomed them to failure”? She answers it in an interview without hesitation: “Yes, it’s hard, and I’m still moved, she confirms, because it’s not normal that I can have drinking water at home and that there are people for whom it is a daily quest. »
Note that you will only see a few images of brown water flowing profusely from the tap. “The natives did not want us to show a miserable image of their community,” she says, saluting their calm and dignity.
Moreover, and even if she concludes with a “ball in the stomach”, Nassima Way remains hopeful. Some communities are very remote and their development will be difficult. “But there are those who are close, vibrant, with a new generation of young people who are working hard to make their community grow economically, socially and… healthily. »
Doc humanity, Saturday at 10:30 p.m. on ICI Télé and ICI Tou.tv