Danny Beaton’s passion for the environment emerged after two life-changing experiences: He sobered up after almost two decades of alcohol and drug abuse and had a vision that had a profound effect on him.
“I had a vision of an orca killer whale that was crying, and it shook me up,” he said.
“I was stoned for 19 years and finally when I got free of the poison my brain became clear and I reacted to all the destruction and injustice I could see to Mother Earth, and that’s where it all started.”
That was 20 years ago and since then Beaton, a Turtle Clan Mohawk of Grand River Six Nations in Ontario, has been campaigning for environmental causes in Canada, the United States, and South America.
On March 26 in Regina, Beaton, 56, will be one of 14 aboriginals recognized for their achievements at the 17th Annual National Aboriginal Achievement Awards (NAAA). He will receive the award for the category of “Environment and Natural Resources.”
Across the country, Beaton has worked with Northern Cree, Innu, Inuit, Apache, and Ojibway to protect their cultures and traditional territories from various development schemes.
“There are a lot of struggles going on all across Canada right now,” he says.
“Our elders are saying, ‘Don’t stop defending Mother Earth, because the earth is sacred to us, she gives us everything we need, and you can’t just allow the earth to be destroyed, allow rivers to be dammed, allow forests to be clear-cut. We have to continue to stand up for Mother Earth and do everything we can.’”
Beaton “works both sides of the border,” and one of his successes was helping stop oil exploration in the caribou calving grounds of Alaska’s Arctic National Refuge. The caribou are central to the economy and way of life of the Gwitch’n Nation.
He has also helped protect the sacred remains of the traditional Seminole territories in Florida and worked with the indigenous peoples from the Amazon Rainforest to bring their concerns about deforestation to a wider audience.
As part of his work Beaton has produced and directed four films, three of which have been broadcast nationally in Canada. A traditional native flute player, he uses his artistry and communication skills to affirm native cultures through film, photography, music, writing and teaching.
He has lectured in schools, colleges and universities in Canada, and has also lectured and performed in Japan and the United Kingdom. In 1992 he received the Governor General’s Medal for outstanding contributions to his fellow Canadians.
The NAAA awards are given by the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (NAAF), a non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds to deliver programs that provide the tools necessary for Aboriginal peoples, in particular youth, to achieve their potential.
The awards ceremony, which will feature performers including Buffy Sainte-Marie and Crystal Shwanda, will be hosted by Tinsel Corey of Twilight fame and Rauol Trujillo, who appeared in Apocalypto.
Other award winners include Dr. Raoul J. McKay (Education), Tom Crane Bear (Culture, Heritage, and Spirituality) and Monica Pinette (Sport).
Recognized as a trail blazer in Canada for the women’s modern pentathlon, Pinette competed in both the Athens and Beijing Olympics. In Athens, she was one of the first Canadian women to compete in the sport at an Olympic Games. She was also the only athlete of aboriginal descent to compete in Athens.
Through its education program, since 1985 the NAAF has awarded more than $32 million in scholarships and bursaries to about 8,400 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis students nationwide.
One of Beaton’s more recent causes was the effort to stop Dump Site 41 in Simcoe County, Ontario, a landfill slated to be built on top of Alliston Aquifer, reputed to contain some of the purest water in the world.
Opponents claim the landfill would contaminate not only Alliston Aquifer but also nearby Georgian Bay.
To raise awareness, Beaton led a five-day 120-kilometre “walk for water” from Tiny Township to Queen’s Park in Toronto. He launched a Facebook petition against the proposed dump that received 9,000 signatures, and locals set up peaceful blockade to prevent construction from going ahead.
Last August, Simcoe County councillors voted 22-10 in favour of a one-year moratorium on the controversial landfill. The decision will be followed by a future vote to scrap the project entirely, according to the Council of Canadians’ website.
“Water has been disrespected in so many ways over and over again, basically for profit,” says Beaton. “That is life and that is negative, but there is still the positive force. The corporations do not have to function for the negative—we can have trade and commerce in a positive way.”
He adds that he strives to “bring native values and philosophy to main-steam society where there is a missing link towards solving problems.”
“It is about coming together in unity and solving the environmental problems Western society created from greed or profit through mismanagement of Mother Earth.”
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