Latest news with #TaylorBehn-Tsakoza
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Group announces innovative plan to transform abandoned oil wells: 'Our vision hasn't changed'
Fort Nelson First Nation in British Columbia, Canada, is an area littered with remnants of oil wells, but local communities are now looking to transform one into a sustainable geothermal power plant. Using royalties gathered over the years from oil prospectors, an indigenous group aims to transform this old, polluting fuel source into one of the country's first 100% geothermal power plants, according to a report by Corporate Knights. The community-owned plant is called Tu Deh-Kah, which translates to "boiling water," and the goal is for it to provide up to 15 megawatts of clean, geothermal electricity by 2027. Fort Nelson's electricity grid is currently reliant on dirty fuels for power, and this project is an essential keystone in the region's shift towards more sustainable energy resources. "We want to see a sustainable energy project in our territory that we own," said Taylor Behn-Tsakoza, a community liaison officer with Tu Deh-Kah. First Nations, Inuit and Métis people are already leaders in Canada's green energy transition, as partners or beneficiaries in around 20% of the country's electricity-generating infrastructure, with most of it based on renewables, the report detailed. Geothermal power plants use hot brine pumped from deep within the earth to provide heat or generate electricity. They convert it into steam to power generators, and once that water vapor has done its job, it's reinjected back into the underground reservoirs. The Tu Deh-Kah team doesn't plan to waste any resources available in the old well. Any remaining gas found in the well will be used, and there are plans to extract lithium from the brine. A recently constructed 2,000-square-foot greenhouse built near the community school will be one of the first locations to be heated by the Tu Deh-Kah power plant. The ambition is to grow enough commercial produce to "feed the north," as Behn-Tsakoza put it. The project recently received $1.2 million from Natural Resources Canada through the Indigenous Natural Resource Partnerships program, which the report says is designed to increase participation of those communities in the clean energy economy. Should we be harnessing the ocean to power our homes? Absolutely Leave it be It depends I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. There are still hurdles for the project, as using geothermal in sedimentary basins is still relatively unproven on the continent. There was also more gas found in the well than previously thought, which led skeptical local elders to question how environmentally friendly the project really is. Behn-Tsakoza's response was that "Our vision hasn't changed," and they'll continue to push forward with this sustainable geothermal energy project for the betterment of the community and the environment. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
ABC News
25-04-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Pope Francis said sorry to Indigenous people in Canada — but what will his legacy be?
Canadian First Nations youth advocate Taylor Behn-Tsakoza was part of a delegation that visited Vatican City in 2022, calling on Pope Francis to say sorry — and the next day he did. "It was a really moving moment … I felt like, 'Wow, things can possibly be changing,'" she recalled of the meeting three years ago. Reflecting now on the pope's death, Ms Behn-Tsakoza said, "I'll miss him … he was very kind." Delegates from Canada's Indigenous peoples speak to the media after a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2022. ( Reuters: Remo Casilli ) In the opulent Apostolic Palace in the Vatican in 2022, Ms Behn-Tsakoza said each of the delegates had seven minutes to speak about their experiences, but the pope didn't enforce the timings — despite the calls from the clock watchers. "I remember one of the first things I told Pope Francis was, 'I come to you speaking in English. The language was beaten out of my family, out of my community … those scars still run deep.'" Taylor Behn-Tsakoza, a Dene woman from the Fort Nelson First Nation, was part of a delegation at Vatican City calling for an apology in 2022. ( Supplied: Taylor Behn-Tsakoza ) The then 25-year-old, whose family was impacted by the Catholic-run school system, believed the pope was listening deeply. "I told Pope Francis, 'You're a very progressive pope, and I call on you to continue to be progressive and to really do what's right, and to really listen to the words of the survivors,'" the Dene woman from British Columbia's Fort Nelson First Nation said. Pope Francis holds an audience in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace with Indigenous delegations from Canada at the Vatican. ( Vatican Handout via REUTERS ) "I felt like he was really just taking in everything that we were sharing and that it was really touching him." 'Sorry': from the Vatican City to the Powwow Grounds in Alberta Responding to the delegation's call, Francis would travel to Canada just four months later to say sorry directly to affected Indigenous communities. "Honouring that request I think speaks volumes to who he was as a person, and to how deeply impacted he was from hearing our stories," Ms Behn-Tsakoza said. Pope Francis receives a headdress during his visit to Maskwacis, Alberta. ( Reuters: Todd Korol ) "I have come to your native lands to tell you in person of my sorrow, to implore God's forgiveness, healing and reconciliation," "I am deeply sorry. Sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonising mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous Peoples." At least three generations of Matthew Wildcat's family went to Catholic residential schools and he says what struck him was the silence that descended on the thousands of people who were there to witness the pope's apology. "I was very moved," the member of the Ermineskin Cree Nation said of the day. "The majority of the crowd were actual residential school survivors, and you could tell that this was something that was really quite profound and unique and special." Matthew Wildcat says he was very moved by the historic apology from the pope. ( Supplied: Matthew Wildcat ) Mr Wildcat, an assistant professor and director of Indigenous governance in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, believes "the text of the apology was flawed". "It's really quite clear that he didn't apologise on behalf of the church for running residential schools, and the church as an institution, but rather apologise and ask for forgiveness for individual Catholics who had perpetrated the harms of residential schools," he said. Pope Francis's apology received mixed responses from Indigenous people in Canada. ( REUTERS/Amber Bracken ) Despite that, he felt a sense of "closure" after seeing the pope deliver his address. "I didn't feel the need for an apology … I didn't think the apology is necessary for healing … but I felt it was a really nice way to end a chapter in the history of the community. "The apology in my mind satisfied the recommendation of the call to action, and I feel like it's time to work, to move forward with other work of reconciliation," he said. When questioned by a reporter on the plane home from Canada, the pope reportedly described what happened to the children as "genocide". "It's true that I did not use the word because I didn't think of it. But I described genocide. I apologised, I asked forgiveness for this activity, which was genocide," Francis said, "I condemned this, taking children away and trying to change their culture, their minds, change their traditions, a race, an entire culture." Pope Francis meets with First Nations, Metis and Inuit Indigenous communities. ( Vatican Media/Divisione Produzione Fotografica/Handout via Reuters ) Ms Behn-Tsakoza said that Francis's apology was the "starting point", but she would like to see support from the church, such as language revitalisation resources. "I just hope that that the next pope is willing to fill these big shoes that Pope Francis left for him in terms of reconciliation with Indigenous people," she told the Indigenous Affairs Team. Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery The apology in Canada followed the Argentine pope's visit to Bolivia where he asked forgiveness for the "grave sins" of colonisation. There were calls from Indigenous people to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery. ( Reuters: Guglielmo Mangiapane ) Francis would go on "repudiate" the Doctrine of Discovery, which was used to legitimise the colonisation and These were set out in papal bulls or decrees dating from the 15th century. "He [Pope Francis] was rewriting history in a way that respected Indigenous people and that actually gave onus to our sovereignty over our land," Ms Behn-Tsakoza said. "To be sitting in high school or my undergrad, learning about the Doctrine of Discovery, and then meeting with the pope, asking him to rescind it, and I'm seeing on the news that he actually did. " We can do really big things when we're given the opportunity to actually advocate for ourselves. " Will the next pope come to Australia to apologise for the church's role in the Stolen Generations? Francis never made the trip to Australia to directly speak to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Pope John Paul II, who visited Alice Springs in 1986, and later wrote in 2001 on behalf of the Vatican expressing "deep regret" and asking "forgiveness where her children have been or still are party to these wrongs". "Aware of the shameful injustices done to Indigenous peoples in Oceania, the Synod Fathers apologised unreservedly for the part played in these by members of the Church, especially where children were forcibly separated from their families." Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann met Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2023. ( Facebook ) Esteemed Elder Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann AM in the Northern Territory's Daly River would've liked an apology from a pope, acknowledging her sister was removed from the family, a trauma experienced across the nation by those known today as the Stolen Generations. "It would be lovely for them to apologise to all of us. It wasn't just in the Territory, it was down south as well, or wherever, all around Australia. "But these things happened, and there should be an apology, I reckon," she said. A devout Catholic, and a former Catholic school principal who met Pope Francis in 2023 said, "I've always had respect for him."
