Organizers of the Tar Sands Healing Walk, a 14-kilometre spiritual walk through lands impacted by oilsands (also called tar sands) extraction in northern Alberta, have announced this year’s Healing Walk on June 28th will be the last.

“It was a difficult decision to make,” admits Jesse Cardinal, co-organizer of the Healing Walk. “We felt the original goals of the healing walk of letting local communities know that they had support for the issues of mass industry in the territory and gaining further attention of the issues of tar sands development in a way that was non-aggressive were achieved.”

“Our work will continue in the territory, with the people and communities, but, will look different, so I wouldn’t really call it an end, as a new beginning,” Cardinal told DeSmog Canada. Cardinal is a member of the Kikino Metis Settlement in northeastern Alberta.

The Healing Walk is the only grassroots event to bring people face to face with Canada’s oilsands, one of the largest oil reserves and industrial projects in the world. Participants in the annual event walk through the industrialized landscape, passing by active oilsands facilities releasing toxins into the air, chemical tailings ponds the size of lakes and a barren land in an otherwise lush and green region of Alberta's boreal forest.

But all this is secondary to the Healing Walk’s core theme: hope that the land, water and people drastically impacted by two decades of rapid oilsands extraction will one day heal.

Healing Walk is Not a Protest or a Rally

“We're not going out there for yet another protest, yet another rally. We're out there to be together, to heal, and those two things are very appealing in a context of seemingly endless struggle,” says Chelsea Flook, a Healing Walk organizer since 2010.

“[For participants] the focus on the space being primarily a healing space is a very strong draw,” Flook told DeSmog. Flook is originally from Ontario, but she is currently based in Edmonton and works for the Mother Earth Action Cooperative.

Organizers have been clear from the beginning that the Healing Walk is not a protest. No one shouts out political chants during the walk that takes place just north of Canada’s famous oil town, Fort McMurray. The only banner present is the one leading the procession with the words “Stop the Destruction. Start the Healing” painted on it.

Healing Walk procession in 2013. Photo by Zack Embree.

Instead, participants are led by First Nations elders along the so-called ‘Syncrude Loop’ (oilsands company Syncrude has an operation nearby) as they pray and make offerings in the four directions: north, south, east and west. To complete the loop on foot takes about six hours.

“Making prayers to the four directions woke up the spirit of the land, the water and the people. It has awoken a creative force within the people that will suffocate the destructive force that is the tar sands. That is a pretty powerful warrior to deal with,” says Clayton Thomas-Muller, MC of this year’s Healing Walk and Idle No More campaigner.

Clayton Thomas-Muller with Eriel Deranger of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (left) and Melina Laboucan-Massimo of the Lubicon Cree Nation (right). Photo by Zack Embree.

The Healing Walk is a 3-Day Gathering: Workshops, Communal Meals, Camping

The two days prior to the actual walk have the outward appearance of festival. Tents cluster together (camping is free for participants) in a field on the shores of Lake Gregoire, also called Willow Lake. Communal meals and workshops covering a wide range of oilsands-related issues, from First Nations treaty rights to pipelines, take place at the campsite — an hour’s drive from the starting point of the Healing Walk at Crane Lake Park.

“You come as an individual but you leave as part of the whole which is part of the beauty of the Healing Walk,” says Thomas-Mueller, who is a member of the Missinipi Ethinewak or Big River Cree in Manitoba.

A participant of last year's Healing Walk. Photo by Zack Embree.

“This year, we are focusing mainly on local voices. Some of the people we have speaking, have never been heard of before, but are concerned about what is happening in the Fort McMurray indigenous territory. So more going back to being a grassroots event,” Cardinal says.

Local indigenous voices will include Matthew Whitehead, a traditional knowledge carrier from Fort Chipewyan, Annette Campre and a resident of Fort McKay, who will lead workshops on education and spirituality. The physician who first noticed and researched high rates of cancer among Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation members – Dr. John O’Connor –will speak as part of a health panel.

Last year’s Healing Walk attracted well over 500 people, the largest turnout thus far. Internationally known speakers such as 350.org founder Bill McKibben and author Naomi Klein were among them.

Naomi Klein speaking at last year's Healing Walk event. Photo by Zack Embree.

“At last year’s walk, I saw a fundamental shift in energy that let me know we have already won,” Thomas-Muller told DeSmog Canada.

Will the land ever heal? Organizers are optimistic

For many a ‘win’ for First Nations as well as non-indigenous Canadians over the oilsands industry is hard to see. Despite a few pipeline project delays – notably Keystone XL in the U.S. and Northern Gateway in B.C. – the oilsands industry has expanded rapidly and relatively unimpeded under the current federal government.

And yet Healing Walk organizers believe one day the land they have guided hundreds of people through over the last four years will heal.

“I do believe so, but not in my lifetime," Cardinal says. "The destruction is too big. But way down the road when our existence here is different, and more people have demanded an energy future that isn't destructive to the land, air, water and all living beings will we achieve harmony." Cardinal is a coordinator with the Keepers of the Athabasca, the main organizing group behind the Healing Walk.

A sign designates an industrial area under restoration. Photo by Zack Embree.

“It will take a couple of lifetimes for the land to recover, but a metamorphosis will take place and create new life. Indigenous people will be a part of this and those who do not follow their lead will be left behind. The circle of life will continue,” Thomas-Muller says.

Healing Walk organizer Chelsea Flook, who is not indigenous, believes the only way to get there and avoid the catastrophic effects of runaway climate change at the same time is to follow the lead of indigenous peoples.

“We need to take direction from indigenous communities, to honour their ways of knowing and being. It might mean some awkward dancing between worldviews, it might entail some moments of discomfort,” she says.

“But by supporting Indigenous communities' struggle to protect the land [in the oilsands], we can also fight back against the 'business as usual' plans of industry that entail a six-degree climate warming scenario,” Flook said.

Image Credit: All photos by Zack Embree.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

The words 'this is just wrong' echoed in my mind walking 14 kilometers through the barren, industrialized landscape in the heart of the Alberta tar sands last Saturday. Wrong on such an overwhelming scale and in so many dimensions, the only parallel that comes to mind is the destruction to the land wrought by a major war.

The blasted, battered lands along the Syncrude Loop look like a battle had been fought but with weaponry that left nothing alive – not a blade of grass or an insect. The once verdant boreal forest and wetlands are transformed into desert and toxic lakes. In their midst a huge industrial complex, chimneys belching smoke, workers housed in cramped barracks while heavy trucks roar by day and night.

More than 500 of us from all over Canada and the US on the Healing Walk stood on the roadside straining to hear the prayers offered by elders from the Fort McKay First Nation. I felt a deep sadness for all those who work in the tar sands. I imagine that it must be a tough place, this noxious environment, to breathe, to sleep, to toil. I suspect the pay is the only thing keeping them going, because it's hard to find anything to be proud of looking around this industrial landscape. 

An RCMP officer told one walker that drug abuse is rampant and that even grade school children have been caught with cocaine.

The Healing Walk is not a protest march. It is a spiritual gathering focused on healing the land and all living things including people harmed by the relentless expansion of the world's largest industrial project. The Walk is not anti-industry or anti-worker, it's pro-health and pro-solutions.

This included praying for the healing of governments corrupted by the oil industry and for the awakening of industry executives to the terrible legacy they're leaving for future generations.

All of us use oil in one form or another everyday. But as a one-time gift from Mother Nature, should not all of our efforts be directed to using as little as possible, knowing the consequences? Instead, $200 billion has been spent in the tar sands destroying hundreds of square kilometres of land and water to get more of this dwindling resource.

That is deeply short-sighted and more people are beginning to realize this.

Four years ago, just 75 people joined the first annual Healing Walk held outside of Fort McKay, 800 km north of Calgary. It's remote. But for the fourth Healing Walk hundreds of people camped in a field on the shores of Lake Gregoire, also known as Willow Lake. Four is a sacred number amongst many native peoples and in other cultures.

"It means this is the beginning of a new cycle, a slow down and eventual end to the tar sands," Clayton Thomas-Muller, a Cree from Manitoba and co-ordinator with the Idle No More movement, said prior to the event.

And to mark this new beginning, a baby boy was born at the camp at midnight Friday, in the midst of a thunderstorm. 

"We have to be the people to say no. People are counting on us to say 'no, this is wrong'," Winona LaDuke an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe), writer and teacher from Minnesota told participants during workshops that Friday.

Breaking "our oil addiction" can be done by "re-localizing and shifting to low-carbon ways of living," said La Duke.

On Saturday I walked, talked and prayed all day in just one tiny part of the tar sands project. That night there was a celebratory feast, drumming and dancing. Yes, celebration because the new cycle has begun.

In the early morning Sunday rain, I slipped out of the tent to stand amazed on the shore of Willow Lake. Others joined me, rubbing their eyes, and agreed they too saw a large floating island of grasses and shrubs that had emerged overnight. This sudden appearing seemed symbolic of new cycles, of change, and the power of nature to surprise and to create new life.

Later that morning, a school bus stuck deep in the slippery Alberta mud was freed using only the ingenuity, muscle and co-operative efforts of a handful of people. Washing the muck off my hands, I remember marvelling to someone: "It's amazing what we can achieve when we work together."

Photo Credits: Renee Leahy

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

Citizens and community leaders converging this weekend in Northern Alberta for the annual "Tar Sands Healing Walk" will likely be quite happy with news that another major European financial institution is dropping their investments in Canada's tar sands. 

Norwegian financial services giant, Storebrand, issued an update saying that the company has divested it's financial interests in 13 coal extractors and six companies heavily involved in oil sands extraction.

This follows on the heels of Dutch bank Rabobank announcing four days ago that they have instituted a "no-loan" policy to any company involved in so-called "extreme" fuel extraction, mainly tar sands and shale gas. 

Both Storebrand and Rabobank are concerned about the long term financial risk the tar sands and other heavily polluting forms of energy production pose. In announcing their decision to divest of investments in the tar sands, Storebrand's head of sustainability, Christine Tørklep Meisingset said:

“[As] the stated climate goals become reality, these resources are worthless financially, but it is also true that they do not contribute to sustainable development in the extent and the pace we want. Exposure to fossil fuels is one of the industry’s main challenges, and for us it is essential to work purposefully to take our share of responsibility.” 

A recent report describes Canada's tar sands, and other extraordinarily carbon intensive energy sources, as "stranded assets" that will likely be worthless in the long term as the world shifts to renewable and carbon-free sources. According to the report, titled Unburnable carbon 2013: Wasted capital and stranded assets, last year alone $674 billion was invested in finding and developing new potentially stranded assets like coal and oil sands.

Lead author of the report, Sir Nicholas Stern stated that:

"Smart investors can see that investing in companies that rely solely or heavily on constantly replenishing reserves of fossil fuels is becoming a very risky decision. The report raises serious questions as to the ability of the financial system to act on industry-wide long term risk, since currently the only measure of risk is performance against industry benchmarks.”

As the financial community begins to wake up to this idea of stranded assets and the citizenry continues to press for reform to the Canadian tar sands industry, we might be in for a very long hot summer. 

Image Credit: Emma Pullman

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

Last week, 500 activists from 133 nations gathered in Istanbul to send a message for Canada to "Stop Tar Sands Destruction," as part of the Global Power Shift summit to mobilize against climate change.

Among the participants is Canadian activist Brigette DePape, who rose to prominence after being fired from her position as a Senate Page for holding a sign saying "Stop Harper!" in Senate. DePape said that she was amazed "to see a global movement rising to fight dirty energy around the planet, and to see that focused on the tar sands is incredible."

DePape added that they would be "bringing this message from the world back home and right to heart of the destruction next week." She emphasized that the message was already being spread at home as well, "with civil disobedience actions around Line 9 this week, and events like the Healing Walk to bring people together and start turning the tide away from dirty energy."

Nine of the activists chosen to participate in Global Power Shift are from Canada. The group includes First Nations organizers, young workers, climate and community activists, and artists. All will be involved in expanding the youth climate movement in Canada after the global summit.

"We are seeing an international climate movement committed to standing with those on the front line of tar sands extraction and those who are facing the brunt of the impacts of climate change sweeping the globe" said Suzanne Dhaliwal of the UK Tar Sands Network.  

The summit's global statement against tar sands development comes before the 4th Annual Healing Walk, taking place from July 5-6 in Fort McMurray, Alberta. The Healing Walk is intended to be a productive event, encouraging local community members to participate in finding solutions to the social, economic and environmental repercussions of tar sands development.

"We welcome everyone to the Healing Walk, and we really hope that those responsible for the destruction of the Tar Sands will come to see the destructive impacts first-hand," said Eriel Deranger, organizer of the Healing Walk, and a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

Planned by global grassroots organization 350.org, the Global Power Shift summit has taken two years of preparation to reach fruition. The event is proceeding despite, and in solidarity with, the current protests sparked by the Turkish government's plan to replace one of Istanbul's last green spaces, Taksim Gezi Park, with a shopping mall.

Joshua Kahn Russell, who helped create the summit's curriculum, writes for rabble.ca, that when "[we] envisioned convening this broad movement convergence two years ago, we never could have imagined that we would be holding this event in the midst of a popular uprising."

Russell adds that the coincidence feels "appropriate," as Global Power Shift is meant to trigger a "new phase of an international climate movement" that "disrupts the status quo and captures the public imagination…like the Taksim Square activists have done."

According to the Global Power Shift website, the "week-long summit will be a chance for us to refine skills, create personal bonds and community, share a global vision for change, and strategize how to organize different actions and similar summits back home."

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.