{"id":32839,"date":"2019-06-28T03:52:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T10:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=32839"},"modified":"2019-06-26T10:35:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T17:35:24","slug":"inspired-by-a-fellow-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/06\/28\/inspired-by-a-fellow-activist\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspired by a fellow activist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katie Delay, left, and Sunny Enkin Lewis are co-presidents of Grant Park High School\u2019s Students for Social Justice. (photo from Sunny Enkin Lewis)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Winnipeg Grade 12 student Sunny Enkin Lewis won first prize for her age group in A&E network\u2019s contest Lives That Make a Difference. The contest receives hundreds of submissions from all over Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prompt [for the contest] is along the lines of, \u2018Write an essay about someone who has made a significant contribution to Canada in 2018,\u2019\u201d Enkin Lewis told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cSo, I wrote about Autumn Peltier, who \u2013 I believe she\u2019s 15 now, around there \u2013 is an indigenous water keeper. She\u2019s an activist for clean water in indigenous communities in Canada. She\u2019s spoken at the UN, she\u2019s spoken to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. So, she\u2019s done a lot of amazing activism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peltier is Anishinaabe and is from the Wikwemikong First Nation on Manitoulin Island in northern Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose her for a couple reasons,\u201d said Enkin Lewis, who was born in Toronto, but has lived in Winnipeg for the past 10 years. \u201cFirst of all, I think her cause is really important in Canada. I\u2019ve always been really upset with Canadian society and government, because we tend to look at ourselves as pretty flawless in terms of human rights. And, it is true that the quality of life for Canadians, overall, is really good. Yet, there are people, a lot of people, who don\u2019t have the most basic of their needs met \u2013 water and shelter … and I think she has brought more awareness to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her essay, Enkin Lewis points out that Peltier not only stands up fearlessly for this cause, but that she does so from a unique worldview as an Anishinaabe person.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe thinks of water as deserving of rights,\u201d said Enkin Lewis. \u201cThat\u2019s not something we would generally think of and I think it\u2019s a really strong statement \u2013 that someone can stand up and speak of things in a way that contrasts the common logic of general Western ideas. I think that helps validate indigenous worldviews in a Western context a little more. Also, I was just inspired by her, as a young woman. I think it\u2019s so important that young people\u2019s voices are heard and that\u2019s how I believe change will happen the fastest \u2013 if young people are given a platform and are accepted and respected \u2013 and she really embodies that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for as why Enkin Lewis\u2019s essay may have been chosen, she said, \u201cI think my choice of person was really relevant in Canada today, especially since, now, I think, there\u2019s a big focus on indigenous rights, and I think it was maybe a bit refreshing to see someone like that. I haven\u2019t read the other people\u2019s essays, and they didn\u2019t tell me why mine was specifically chosen … just that they thought it stood out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up, Enkin Lewis learned that \u201ca big thing in Judaism is valuing life over everything, and knowing the value of human life. And, I think a big part of Judaism is also just respect for people and … everyone should have a good quality of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that, here, in Canada, there are people who don\u2019t have their basic needs met, I think that\u2019s not OK in Judaism. I think it\u2019s important for other cultures to listen to each other, just as I think it\u2019s important for Christian people to listen to Jewish people. And, I think it\u2019s important for Jewish people to listen to indigenous perspectives. As a European Jew, I\u2019m not native to this land … and it\u2019s important to respect the people who are the caretakers of this land and who have been for thousands of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Enkin Lewis led the organizing of a social justice conference at Grant Park High School, which, in turn, led to the development of a student social justice club at Grant Park. Enkin Lewis and co-president Katie Delay created the club and, because they and the teacher involved in helping to form the group will have left the school by the start of the next school year, Enkin Lewis hopes the younger members will pick up the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our club is very student-centred, very much about what we care about right now, and it gives me and other people an opportunity to get involved in a safe and constructive way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As Grant Park has many newcomer Yazidi students, events organized by the club have been focused on building community awareness of the Yazidi situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a drive for school supplies for underprivileged students in Winnipeg, and the biggest thing we\u2019ve done is organize a coffeehouse and a couple other events for Yazidis with the help of a local organization called Operation Ezra. We had a bake sale where we sold traditional Yazidi foods, a Yazidi dance class to educate people about the culture, etc. I find that people are not really aware of what\u2019s happening to the Yazidi people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a coffeehouse in the evening and invited community members, students, parents, anyone to come. There were student performers and a speaker talking about what\u2019s happening, and a Yazidi performer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enkin Lewis\u2019s essay win comes with a $3,000 cheque for her and a $1,000 cheque for her school. She plans to follow her family\u2019s Jewish custom of donating a portion of everything they earn. \u201cI haven\u2019t narrowed it down to a specific organization yet,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I\u2019m going to donate it basically to her [Peltier\u2019s] cause \u2013 water in indigenous communities. Other than that, I will probably put it toward my education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katie Delay, left, and Sunny Enkin Lewis are co-presidents of Grant Park High School\u2019s Students for Social Justice. (photo from Sunny Enkin Lewis) Earlier this year, Winnipeg Grade 12 student Sunny Enkin Lewis won first prize for her age group in A&E network\u2019s contest Lives That Make a Difference. The contest receives hundreds of submissions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9087,6299,9089,3956,1122,9088,1959,3876,7381,3753],"class_list":["post-32839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-ae","tag-activism","tag-autumn-peltier","tag-first-nations","tag-human-rights","tag-sunny-enkin-lewis","tag-tikkun-olam","tag-water","tag-writing","tag-youth"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}