Date/Time
Date(s) - Fri 24 April
8:00 - 9:00
Pemadashdakota (Rice Lake) is the first body of water in Ontario to receive this status, and the second in Canada after Quebec’s Magpie River set the precedent as it was granted legal personhood in 2021.
Aotearoa Indigenous Rights Trust are honoured to host Chief Taynar Simpson of Alderville First Nation (Ontario) for an online kõrero about his community’s landmark recognition of legal personhood for Rice Lake.
Why does this matter for Aotearoa? Because across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, Indigenous peoples have always understood rivers, lakes, harbours and coastlines as living relatives – not resources. Translating that understanding into legal reality is the work of our generation.
Bio
Chief Taynar Simpson is the elected Chief of Alderville First Nation, a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg (Mississauga Ojibwe) community located on the shores of Rice Lake in Ontario, Canada. He has dedicated nearly thirty years to the advancement of First Nations causes, working across national reconciliation efforts including the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement process and, as project lead for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, identifying the thousands of children who perished at Canada’s residential schools. In 2000, Chief Simpson founded Wampum Records, which has since grown into Canada’s premier research and consulting firm on Indigenous issues. He serves as Chair of Alderville Solar Inc., Canada’s largest wholly Indigenous-owned energy project, and as Vice-Chair of both the Ogemawahj Tribal Council and the Dnaagdawenmag Binnoojiiyag Child and Family Services Board. Chief Simpson is now at the forefront of the global Rights of Nature movement. Over more than two years, he led a coalition of First Nations, municipalities, conservation groups, and community stakeholders to achieve a landmark outcome: in November 2025, Alderville First Nation passed a resolution recognising legal personhood for Rice Lake — making it the first body of water in Ontario to receive this status. His vision is that the lake be protected in law the same way a person would be — with a guardians council able to pursue any wrongs committed against it. He presented this work at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, and believes the model can and should be replicated for water bodies across Turtle Island and beyond.