Why we talk to indigenous communities

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]listening to an elder tell me that here is a lake where he grew up. And now the lake is no longer fishable because of some input of mercury. [music] Now, okay, mercury is a periodic element. It occurs naturally, but all that we have is a sampling that says mercury levels are too high here.

[00:00:19][music] And now the fish are no good.

[00:00:22]But we don't know what the input was.

[00:00:24]Like how did this happen? Why is it suddenly there where it wasn't there the previous [music] 70 years? So we talk to the community members say, "Well, what changed?

[00:00:33]Are the fish are no good here?

[00:00:34]>> [music] >> Uh the skin is like it's flaky. The meat is too soft. What a kilometer downstream is that still the case? Yes.

[00:00:42]>> [music] >> How about a kilometer upstream? Is that still the case? Yes.

[00:00:46]What about 2 km upstream? No. No, [music] they're fine there. Still clean there.

[00:00:50]Well, just in that one little discussion, we've [music] now drawn a 2-km buffer around this lake. And now we have a tightened idea of where that input that's affecting the fish may be coming from.

[00:01:06]That's why we talk to the community because they understand this.