THUNDER BAY – Fort William First Nation held its annual community cleanup earlier this week.
“It’s a yearly waste management initiative we do,” said Alecia Boshcoff, consultation liaison officer with Fort William First Nation.
“It gets the community together,” she said.
It was a busy day at the Fort William First Nation community centre. “Everyone’s already out, scouting the area and getting some garbage,” Boshcoff said.
Everyone wants to live and work in a clean community, she said. That’s why they make the cleanup an annual event.
Erik Charlie, community engagement coordinator with Fort William First Nation, said it’s a good way to pass down knowledge from Indigenous Elders.
“It draws back to the seven generations teaching of how we want our lands to continue to be healthy and sustainable for the next seven generations.”
Charlie said that a part of the teaching means passing it down to their youth.
The community cleanup event, which has been held for approximately seven years, typically has had a great turnout.
“We usually run out of supplies at some point throughout the day,” Charlie said.
Boshcoff added that they got rid of all of their equipment for picking up garbage within 10 minutes of opening.
“But that just goes to show you the efforts we have in the community and how much we want to sustain our environment,” Charlie said
Fort William First Nation does one cleanup per year, Charlie said. However, he mentioned they may organize a secondary cleanup throughout the year.
“It’s just a really great opportunity to pass knowledge down to youth. I think it’s just a beautiful day to do that,” he said.
