“She loved the water so much. And the water loved her back, whispering in her dreams.”

Mark International Human Rights Day with a screening of The Water Walker.

At 15 years old, Autumn Peltier, the Anishinabek Nation chief water commissioner, had already spent half of her life fighting for water. Motivated by stories of children growing up without access to drinkable tap water and elders forced to walk every day to claim water rations, Autumn embarked on a mission to bring clean drinking water to Indigenous communities across Canada. Directed by James Burns, the film follows Autumn's journey from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, on Manitoulin Island, to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City as she fights for the rights of Indigenous communities across Canada.

After the screening, activist, land defender and educator Layla Staats will join Elder Robert Greene of Shoal Lake 39 First Nation and Museum curator Isabelle Masson in a conversation about Autumn’s journey, the devastating impacts of water advisories and climate change action across Canada.