Chief Pauline Drake has announced that much of Whitewater Lake First Nation has been destroyed by recent wildfires.<\/p>\n
THUNDER BAY \u2013 Whitewater Lake First Nation has been devastated by wildfires.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Nishnawbe Aski Nation released a statement from Chief Pauline Drake announcing the devastation of her community.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of the community has been destroyed. Homes, personal belongings, and vital community infrastructure have been lost.<\/p>\n
The lands that hold the graves of ancestors and recently departed family members have also been impacted, deepening the grief felt by community members,\u201d Drake said in the\u00a0statement.<\/p>\n
The news was confirmed at 5 p.m. on Saturday when aerial photos became available.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile no words can adequately express the magnitude of this loss, the Whitewater Lake community remains steadfast in its identity and strength.<\/p>\n
As resilient Anishinaabe people, community members will draw upon the wisdom, courage, and enduring spirit of their ancestors to guide them through this difficult time and toward rebuilding,\u201d the chief said.<\/p>\n
Chief Drake and her community are deeply sorry for all the families, people and communities suffering and experiencing tragic loss during this difficult time.<\/p>\n
These wildfires have affected not only First Nation communities but also tourist outfitters and personal camps, the statment reads.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe as people need to stand together in a unified way and call upon the Governments of Ontario and Canada to stand with everyone in the recovery and rebuilding process.<\/p>\n
We also ask that governments publicly acknowledge the profound loss, trauma, and displacement being experienced by all suffering losses at this time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chief Pauline Drake has announced that much of Whitewater Lake First Nation has been destroyed by recent wildfires.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,285809],"class_list":["post-814643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-whitewater-lake-first-nationwhitewater-lake-first-nation-destroyed-by-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}