In the late ’80s the Ojibways of Pic River First Nation couldn’t drink the water that surrounded their community after chemicals from a mine in the Hemlo Gold Camp contaminated their drinking water supply.
For years the residents of the Northern Ontario community had to drink bottled water. But the effects of the spill go further than just environmental damage.
Chantelle Richmond
“It affected the community because there’s a fear of water,” says Chantelle Richmond, who remembers visiting her family there when she was a child. “For First Nations people whose identity is so intertwined with the environment, it’s really significant.”
The Pic River incident inspired Richmond to start studying the social and environmental factors of health for First Nations people. Now, Richmond will continue her work as the newest member of the Department of Geography at The University of Western Ontario.
Richmond was born in Toronto but was only in Southern Ontario briefly before her parents moved north. Richmond and her two sisters grew up in Marathon, Ont. (about three hours east of Thunder Bay), a short drive from their Ojibway relatives in Pic River First Nation.
When her mother, Diane, married Chantelle’s father Reg, a Newfoundlander, she was no longer considered a full First Nation’s member under Canadian law at the time. Because the family was ineligible to live in Pic River First Nation, they moved to Marathon.
As she went through school, Richmond began to understand the issues facing her family on the Pic River reserve and other aboriginal communities across Canada.
“By the time I got into my master’s I had made the connection and I realized that I wanted to study aboriginal health and look at connections between environment and health in the aboriginal context,” she says.
After graduating as valedictorian from Marathon High School, Richmond completed her undergraduate degree at McMaster University in geography and environmental studies in 2001.
Her passion for the field continued to grow, and her family noticed a change, too.
“Chantelle was always kind of reserved,” her sister Nicole says. “But she blossomed through her university studies. She became a very diligent and passionate advocate for these issues.”
Nicole, now a lawyer in Rama First Nation near Orillia, Ont., is only about 18 months younger than her sister, and graduated from McMaster as well.
“I’ve learned so much (from Chantelle) that I can’t even begin to tell you,” she says. “If it wasn’t for her, I’m not sure I would have succeeded the way I have.”
After finishing her undergraduate degree Richmond stayed at McMaster for her MA from 2001 to 2003. While in the program she took an opportunity to travel to Alert Bay, B.C. where she studied First Nations involvement in aquaculture.
From B.C., Richmond moved back across the country to Montreal where she completed her PhD at McGill University in 2007 and met her husband Ian Haase. There she studied how social support works in First Nations and Inuit communities and what it means for health.
Richmond’s work in aboriginal health helped her win a fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She was almost off to Australia to study indigenous issues when she was offered a faculty position at Western.
“Western’s an exciting place,” she says. “There are a lot of great faculty here who are focusing on environment and health issues, so it’s a great place for me to be.”
Richmond has already started a community-based project in London with the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre.
The two-year project will study dietary patterns and determinants of food choice among aboriginal people in London and at the Chippewa’s of the Thames First Nation.
Richmond, who also has a cross-appointment in First Nations Studies, also began teaching at Western in January. Her second-year course called Indigenous Environments looks at the causes and consequences of environmental change in indigenous communities, and it is the first time Richmond has taught a class on her own.
“I am nervous … But I’m really passionate about what I do. I think the best way that we can start to improve the health and social conditions of aboriginal people in Canada is to make the public more aware about what is happening. That’s one of the roles I see for myself as an educator, trying to shift ideas and help to redirect people’s ideas about why things are the way they are.”
Chantelle Richmond
Pets: Chantelle and husband Ian have a cat named Gracie, adopted in Montreal.
Favourite show: Her favourite T.V. show is Grey’s Anatomy
Favourite activities: She loves to run
Hero: Her hero is her mother, Diane Richmond, from Pic River First Nation
The writer is a graduate student studying Journalism.