‘I go there to be happy,’ Inuit leader says of Churchill River district
HAPPY VALLEY GOOSE BAY, N.L. — Indigenous leaders shared their personal and historical connection to the Churchill River district Tuesday, at an inquiry into the Labrador megaproject that will harness power from an area that provides them with food, transportation — and great comfort.
“I go there as often as I can to get country food, to pick the berries, to be happy, I guess,” Carl McLean, speaking on behalf of the Nunatsiavut government, told the inquiry into the Muskrat Falls hydro dam in Happy Valley-Goose Bay on Tuesday.
“For my mental state it helps me a lot when I’m out on the land.”
McLean, who has a property downstream from the dam near Happy Valley-Goose Bay, began proceedings on the inquiry’s second day with an oral history of the Labrador Inuit’s use of the river and continued reliance on the waterway for food, travel and lodging.