Autumn Peltier
Ottawa, Ontario
Water activist Autumn Peltier is from the Wikwemikong First Nation on Manitoulin Island and of Ojibway and Odawa heritage. She lives in Ottawa, where she attends high school. In the last five years, Autumn Peltier has travelled across the country and internationally to talk about the importance of clean water. Since 2016, when she told the prime minister she was disappointed in him and gave a speech saying it was time to stop “terrorizing Mother Earth and give her time to heal,” she has been named by the Assembly of First Nations as a water protector, was a keynote speaker for World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, and has addressed the United Nations General Assembly and the World Economic Forum. In 2019, at age 16, she appeared on the BBC’s annual list of 100 most influential women. She was the only Canadian on the list.
The source spring of Peltier’s passion should be well known to Canadians: as of March 2021, there were at least 58 outstanding water advisories affecting 38 First Nations communities. Some have not had clean, running drinking water for more than two decades. In Canadian Geographic magazine recently, Peltier recalled at age 8 saying, “There’s kids my age and younger not knowing what it’s like to drink clean water from a tap,” and deciding she had to do something about it. Ever since then, she has.
Wade Luzny Youth Conservation Award
This award was renamed in honour of CWF’s much- admired executive director who died unexpectedly in 2016. It recognizes Canadian youth who have undertaken wildlife or habitat conservation projects and activities that have helped make a difference to the environment.
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